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Qatar Investment Authority Portfolio Handover Rumors

Reports Of Qatar Investment Authority Portfolio Handover

There are talks about the Qatar Investment Authority transferring the oversight of billions worth portfolio to the finance ministry.

There’s a rumor circulating about the possible transfer of the approximately $100 billion domestic Qatar Investment Authority portfolio over to the country’s finance ministry. First proclaimed by Bloomberg citing an anonymous source, the report claims that the sovereign fund will undergo a second overhaul in three years.

The Qatar Investment Authority controls stakes in rather huge companies, like Qatar Airways, Qatar National Bank and telecom giant Ooredoo, which will become under the direct control of the ministry and the finance minister Ali Shareef Al Emadi if the transfer rumors are true.

The domestic unit funds used to be managed by a former US-based Qatari diplomat, Ahmed Al-Rumaihi, the report adds.

Despite being the world’s richest country per capita, Qatar is changing up the strategy of its $335 billion sovereign fund as a response to an ongoing decline in oil prices. The fund owns stakes in high-end properties and landmarks all over the world, including New York, California and London, as well as British and Swiss banks, and sports teams around the globe.

Back in 2005, the Qatar Investment Authority was created to handle the country’s surplus from liquefied natural gas, being the world’s biggest producer under the state-run Qatar Petroleum.

Qatar has been trying to cut costs and spending after global oil prices witnessed a big drop about last year. One of the plans to help the government do so, is to merge two petrochemical and two liquefied natural gas units, as well as to take control over its foreign investment arm, Qatar Petroleum International.

Qatar is also moving towards merging the country’s 3 biggest lenders, Masraf Al Rayan QSC, Barwa Bank QSC and International Bank of Qatar QSC, to create the country’s largest sharia-compliant bank.

The QIA previously announced that it plans to invest $35 billion in the US alone by 2020, and just recently invested in Turkey’s biggest poultry producer, Russian oil giant Rosneft PJSC, and the UK gas company National Grid Plc.

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