Saudi prince backs News Corp share structure

News Corp’s second biggest shareholder, Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, has dismissed calls for a change to the company’s dual-class share structure, reported the Financial Times.

“Investors went into News Corp knowing the class A and B share structure. No one can cry wolf now,” Alwaleed told the FT.

News Corp has a two-class share structure, whereby B-class shares have voting rights and A-class no voting rights. Currently, the Murdoch family control nearly 40% of the voting shares and around 12% of the non-voting shares.

Prince Alwaleed also told the FT that he fully supported Rupert and son James’ handling of the crisis, but added there was need for stricter governance rules to prevent a future occurrence.

“Things need to be tightened. We need stronger rules in place to ensure that no unethical incidents happen again in any News Corp entities.”

The Prince, who is the nephew of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia and holds 7% of the class B voting shares of News Corp, also showed support for Rupert’s recent remarks that he was the best person to clear up the scandal.

Prince Alwaleed said in the interview: “Rupert, chief operating officer Chase Carey and James know what they are doing. Rupert spent his entire life building this company. It’s just normal that he and his family will chair it and rectify this situation. We need to fix it, and the best people to do it are the people inside the company.”