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Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Qatar Has ‘No Global Mission To Conquer The World’

Experts say the country's sovereign wealth fund is only focussed on investments with high returns.

By Reuters - April 13, 2013

Bankers and politicians touting their countries’ wares have to work hard to get the attention of Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, such is the range of its interests, from banks to cars to soccer clubs, and its exacting requirement for returns.

With estimated assets of about $200 billion, and more than a dozen potential deals on its radar every week, the state-run firm has no time for less than compelling investment opportunities and hopes to make more than 17 per cent on its book this year, according to one banker close to the fund.
In a series of interviews with top bankers and officials who deal with the fund, most of whom wished to remain anonymous due to their business relationships, Reuters probed the thinking behind the gas-rich Gulf state’s investments and the future destination of its capital.

“There’s clearly an open-door policy. Qatar has no mystery and no global mission to conquer the world. All it is is buying strategic shares in big companies at an advantage,” says a senior banker at a global bank who has worked on several deals for the fund.

Qatar Holding, the investment arm of the wealth fund, has been actively deploying the nation’s riches from plentiful natural gas in recent years in a string of high-profile assets ranging from French soccer club Paris Saint-Germain to stakes in German sports-car maker Porsche, British bank Barclays and Swiss lender Credit Suisse.

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