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designs: Albert Speer & Partner / visualization: HH Vision
share of Hochtief to 9.1 percent – not as a foreign locust
but more as a ‘white knight’ and at the Germans’
own request – its first public appearance in Germany
met with a positive response. The Dubai port operator
DP World 2006 learnt the hard way how important
a company’s public image can be, when its attempt
to take over several US ports failed due to opposition
from the Bush government. For months, media
commentators had argued against the idea of letting
such strategic lifelines fall into Arab hands. Spanish
construction group ACS could still win the takeover
battle – and Qatar has so far shown no signs of wanting
to boost its share of 9.1 to over 25 percent of
Hochtief, in order to become a minority shareholder
and stymie the Spaniard’s chances of any takeover.
However, Florentino Perez, the CEO of ACS, will
be in for some frequent stoushes with the Qataris
over the next few months, for very different reasons.
Perez is President of the now second-ranked football
club, Real Madrid, while Qatar entered the fray in
December by becoming the jersey sponsor of top-ofthe-table
FC Barcelona. The Qatar Foundation, nominally
independent of the QIA but closely allied to
it nevertheless, will be paying EUR 170 million for
the privilege. On 14 March QIA announced to invest
EUR 2.2 billion into Spanish energy supplier Iberdrola.
Major shareholder ACS‘s stake was accordingly
reduced by this transaction. In doing so the Qataris
tried to boost their Latin American business: in October
2010 they already bought 5 per cent share of
Brazilian Banco Santander.
It would appear that the emirate likes to conceal
subtle message in its investments. USD five billion for
the stricken Greek economy indicate that Qatar is a
reliable friend of the Europeans, even – or especially
– when the euro is under fire. And in the entertainment
domain as well, the Qataris want to show that
they are not as inhibited as is often presumed, and in
fact enjoy watching films by Quentin Tarantino and
the Coen brothers.
In December 2010 a sub-fund of the QIA, in a joint
venture with the Weinstein brothers, bought film
production company Miramax for the equivalent of
around EUR 500 million – the Disney Group that
Miramax belonged to at the time was planning to
close the studios down. This means that even Katie
Holmes, who features in the horror re-
make »Don‘t be afraid of the dark« currently
being produced by Miramax, is
now working for the Qataris. Globally
speaking, these deals made by the QIA
fund with first division clubs and Hollywood
studios are good for their image,
but peanuts in the overall scheme of
things. The majority of the almost USD
22 billion that Qatar invested abroad in
2010 went to emerging countries. For instance,
the QIA supported the somewhat
sluggish IPO of the Agricultural Bank of China to the
tune of USD 6 billion. The over 300 million private
clients of the state-owned enterprise are allowing Qatar
to participate long-term in the economic rise of
the Chinese – or so the logic goes. »We are planning
to invest more and more in Asia over the next few
years. Compared to our activities in Europe, we have
neglected this economic region for far too long«,
Kenneth Shen, who is responsible at QIA for strategic
planning, tells zenith.
The small number of in-house personnel has so far
restricted it to investing in companies that can be re-
2.8 billion euros
for a bank in
China: Hochtief
and Hollywood
are peanuts
>>
GCC REPORT
BusinessReport 1/2011 27