(Sept 21): Qatar is setting up a dedicated platform to manage and grow its wealth fund’s domestic portfolio worth hundreds of billions of dollars, marking a radical reshaping of the gas-rich country’s sovereign investing landscape.
The platform, Doha Investment, will seek to accelerate long-term value creation and boost private-sector participation in the Gulf nation’s economy, Qatar Prime Minister Sheikh Mohammed Abdulrahman Al Thani said at the Qatar Economic Forum in New York Sunday.
“It will support our strongest companies, help emerging businesses grow, deepen capital markets and attract international capital and expertise to contribute to this effort,” the premier said.
The plans, first reported by Bloomberg News in January, were set in motion before the war began. In addition to helping prioritise local development in key areas, the move would enable the US$580 billion (RM2.36 billion) Qatar Investment Authority better manage its global investments, people familiar with the matter said at the time.
The creation of the new entity adds momentum to a regional infrastructure push, with Saudi Arabia accelerating investment in Red Sea ports and the United Arab Emirates pursuing a multibillion-dollar “Zero Hormuz” strategy to develop routes that bypass the crucial waterway.
Qatar expects to award about US$38.5 billion in new infrastructure projects over the next five years, including public-private partnerships, Sheikh Mohammed said. A separate real estate and hospitality pipeline is expected to attract US$22.5 billion in private investment, he added.
“Doha Investment will be an active, long-term partner to the businesses in its portfolio,” said Sheikh Faisal bin Thani Al Thani, who will oversee the platform as managing director and vice chairman. “We will partner with local and international investors to build the next generation of Qatari national champions,” according to Sheikh Faisal, also the nation’s commerce minister.
The platform will manage the QIA’s sprawling domestic portfolio that includes behemoths across sectors like Qatar Airways Group, QNB Group, Ooredoo Group, Qatari Diar, Katara Hospitality and Hassad Food. It will be wholly-owned by the QIA but have its own board and aims to build national champions like Qai, a national artificial intelligence platform established late last year.
The push to double down on local development comes as the Middle East confronts the economic fallout from the US-Iran war, which the Qatari prime minister described as an “earthquake” whose shockwaves had reached far beyond the region.
“Lasting security cannot be built through repeated cycles of escalation and retaliation,” Sheikh Mohammed said, calling for a framework in which sovereignty is respected and no country poses a threat to another.
One of the world’s largest and most consequential investors, the QIA has continued to deploy capital overseas amid the war.
Before the war began, the QIA had started to signal a return to the kind of big-ticket dealmaking that had transformed it into a top global investor. That was based on the expectation that an expansion in liquefied natural gas production would deliver roughly US$30 billion in additional annual revenue to the state.
But Iran’s March strike on Ras Laffan put about 17% of Qatar’s export capacity out of commission, with losses estimated at US$20 billion and repairs expected to take at least three years. The country has since exported some LNG cargoes but they remain far below pre-war levels as tanker transits through the Strait of Hormuz remain risky.
“We do not underestimate the uncertainty ahead,” Sheikh Mohammed said. “But we will not allow short-term disruption to determine our long-term direction.”
The government of the State of Qatar is the underwriter of the Qatar Economic Forum, Powered by Bloomberg.
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