DUBAI -- Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, seen just a few months ago as a bastion of Mideast support for banking giant Citigroup Inc., said Tuesday his Saudi Arabian conglomerate, Kingdom Holding Co., lost 29.7 billion Saudi riyals, or about $7.92 billion, in 2008.

The loss -- about half of which Kingdom Holding blamed on impairments to its investment portfolio -- coincided with the release of a survey in Dubai showing business confidence across the oil-rich Persian Gulf plummeted last quarter.

Just...