‘Isolated’ Qatar to raise investments in US to $45bn
QATAR Investment Authority (QIA) aims to raise investments in the US to $45 billion (R621bn) in the next two years as it rebalances its portfolio of assets away from Europe, its chief executive said yesterday.
The sovereign wealth fund has built up a huge European portfolio in companies such as Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse, London Stock Exchange and Volkswagen.
QIA currently has about $30bn invested in the US, Mansour Ibrahim al-Mahmoud said at a conference.
“We are talking about $45bn for the US market. We are on track for this over the next two years,” he said.
Mahmoud’s predecessor Sheikh Abdullah bin Mohamed bin Saud al-Thani in 2015 committed to invest $45bn in the US over a five-year period.
“Our objective is to balance our portfolio. Currently we have a little bit of concentration in Europe and having this allocation toward the US market is to balance the portfolio,” he said.
In the US, QIA was looking at fundamental sectors such as real estate, technology or US exchanges, he said.
In one such US deal, QIA and hedge fund Elliott Management in December 2017 took Gigamon, the US networking software company, private for $1.6bn.
Mahmoud was speaking as US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo visited Qatar on a tour of the region.
Qatar is at loggerheads with Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Bahrain and Egypt, which have cut off diplomatic and transport ties with Doha, accusing it of backing terrorism and cosying up to Iran.
Qatar denies supporting terrorism and its government is seeking to use the sanctions enforced by its neighbours as an opportunity to develop its own industry and its relations with other countries.
The value of bilateral trade between Qatar and the US has doubled in 10 years, Qatar’s trade minister Ali al-Kuwairi said at the US-Qatar Strategic Dialogue conference. He said the US tops the list of exporters to the Gulf nation. | Reuters