QIA moves US$100b portfolio to ministry
DOHA: Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) will transfer oversight of its approximately US$100 billion (RM4.43 billion) domestic portfolio to the country’s finance ministry as the sovereign fund undergoes its second overhaul in three years, said people with knowledge of the matter.
QIA’s stakes in companies such as Qatar Airways, Qatar National Bank SAQ and telecom provider Ooredoo QSC would come under the control of finance minister Ali Shareef Al Emadi, said the people.
Ahmed Al-Rumaihi, a former Qatari diplomat in the United States, previously managed the fund’s domestic unit after it was set up last year.
Qatar, the world’s richest country per capita, was overhauling its US$335 billion sovereign fund as an ongoing slump in oil prices slows the pace of vast wealth accumulation and buyouts of trophy assets around the globe, including holdings in Hollywood, London residential property, British and Swiss banks, as well as a European soccer team.
The QIA, created in 2005 to handle the country’s windfall from liquefied natural gas sales, last year grouped its local assets into a new unit and abandoned the Qatar Holding name synonymous with its highest-profile deals.
The move was the fund’s biggest shake-up since Qatari royal Sheikh Abdullah Bin Mohammed Bin Saud Al Thani took over from Ahmad Al-Sayed as chief executive officer in 2014.
Qatar was using consolidation as a tool to cut costs after oil prices declined. Bloomberg