Beijing: Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, one of the world’s most aggressive investors, is keen to invest in China’s property, infrastructure and health care sectors, Chief Executive Ahmad Al Sayed has said.
The Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), which is estimated to have around $170 billion (Dh624 billion), is also expanding its Beijing office amid plans to invest between $15 billion and $20 billion in Asia in the next five years, Al Sayed said.
The fund is also considering investments in the consumer and service industry and tech, media and telecommunications sector, he said, and emphasised that QIA would look at any promising investment. Al Sayed, known as a savvy negotiator and aggressive dealmaker, took the helm at QIA in 2013 when the newly-crowned emir, Shaikh Tamim Bin Hamad Al Thani, shook up the investment vehicle as part of his restructuring of the Qatari state on his father’s abdication.
Sources said last year that the fund was hiring bankers and executives with an aim of diversifying its portfolio, which had nearly 80 per cent exposure to Europe.
“We’ve just done a deal in Europe, and we’ll continue doing deals in Europe,” Al Sayed told reporters at an investment forum the fund was hosting in Beijing. “But as a global fund, also we need to diversify asset allocations and geographical location but we will continue in Europe, of course.”
The fund is best known for European investments including the acquisition of London department store Harrods and a significant stake in the firm that runs London’s Heathrow airport.
