Qatar’s clean sweep builds UK assets portfolio | The National

Qatar’s clean sweep builds UK assets portfolio | The National:



"The Qatar Investment Authority’s most recent acquisition is only the tip of an asset-owning iceberg — one some observers are becoming concerned about. 




Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, effectively owned by the Qatari royal family, now has control of London assets that include The Shard, Europe’s tallest office block; the Olympic Village, which is rapidly being redeveloped as a new residential district as well as sporting and leisure venues; the HSBC tower at Canary Wharf; Harrods; a stake in the Shell Centre on the South Bank; the residential redevelopment at Chelsea Barracks; half of the luxury apartment block One Hyde Park, the former US embassy in Grosvenor Square; and an emerging Thames-side development in Chelsea known as Grosvenor Waterside.



Even as market analysts were scratching their heads at the implications of the Canary Wharf deal, Qatar — in the form of Qatar Airways — confounded the City again. Just a day after country’s sovereign wealth fund emerging successfully over the Docklands estate, Qatar Airways bought a 10 per cent stake in British Airways for just over £1 billion (Dh5.56bn)."



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