Title: Qatar revamps investment strategy after Kushner building bailout | Reuters
Headings: Qatar revamps investment strategy after Kushner building bailout
Qatar revamps investment strategy after Kushner building bailout
QATARI BOYCOTT
STILL GOING BIG

Content: Foreign Minister Sheikh Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al Thani was named QIA chairman. Qatar, whose wealth comes from the world’s largest exports of liquefied gas, does not provide data on how much money it places with external fund managers. “What we have seen lately is that it has have not been placing much,” said a Western fund manager who regularly sources money from wealth funds. “ Either they are investing themselves or they are just sitting on a lot of cash.” The Qatar shift in its approach reflects a wider trend among sovereign wealth funds to reduce reliance on external investment managers, in an attempt to keep tighter control over their money. The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, for example, said last year that 55 percent of its assets were managed by external managers in 2017, down from 60 percent the year before. Yet, even if the QIA is being more cautious in its choice of investment vehicles, there is little indication that its appetite for big international acquisitions has diminished. In December, new QIA chief Mahmoud told Reuters the fund was focusing on “classic” investments in the West such as real estate and financial institutions, and would also accelerate investment in technology and healthcare. “The instructions from the top are to go out and do big deals,” said a Western banker who has held talks with Qatari officials. He said QIA’s dealmaking had not stopped even during the height of the Gulf embargo, which initially forced the fund to put in about half of the $43 billion injected by public-sector firms into Qatari banks to mitigate the impact of outflows.