Qatar’s Billionaire Al-Khayyat Brothers Turn to Syria’s Reconstruction - Bloomberg
In 2017, during the Saudi-led embargo of Qatar, local dairy company Baladna famously
airlifted in thousands of cows to help guarantee milk supplies and food security in Doha.
Behind the unorthodox move was the Al-Khayyat family, naturalized Qataris originally hailing from Syria. The bravura stroke helped them win plaudits in their adopted country and benefit from the economic boom that followed. Estithmar Holding QPSC, their flagship conglomerate spanning construction to healthcare and tourism, was the Gulf’s best-performing major stock over the past year, cementing the family in the ranks of the region’s richest business dynasties. Now, they’re poised to play a leading role on reconstruction efforts in their homeland.
Two brothers — Estithmar Chairman Moutaz Al-Khayyat and Vice Chairman Ramez Al-Khayyat, both in their early 40s — sit at the heart of the operation. They each control about 20% of Estithmar and are both billionaires based on their individual stakes in the family’s vast holdings, according to Bloomberg News calculations.
In addition to Estithmar and Baladna, the family possess a web of global assets, including a 19th century mansion in central London once owned by John Pierpont Morgan Sr., according to UK property records. The Al-Khayyat family, including the brothers, have an estimated net worth of more than $7 billion, Bloomberg calculations show.
Their rise signals how much Middle Eastern wealth is flowing through select family-owned conglomerates at a time of rapid economic development and construction in the region. It also points to the riches on offer to those clans who can play a role in helping Gulf countries diversify from hydrocarbons, a key goal from Riyadh to Abu Dhabi.
“The Al-Khayyat story shows that in Qatar, extraordinary private-sector power emerges when political loyalty, commercial competence and strategic usefulness to the state all align,” said Giorgio Cafiero, who leads Washington, DC-based risk consultancy Gulf State Analytics.
A representative for the brothers said they won’t comment on their personal wealth, adding that they do not recognize Bloomberg’s figure, without elaborating.
The Al-Khayyats have successfully forged a presence in many aspects of day-to-day life in Qatar. With dozens of entities under their umbrella, their firms’ real-estate assets line many blocks in the capital of Doha, from residential compounds to malls, schools and hospitals. Baladna’s milks, yogurts and juices appear in nearly every local grocer. Estithmar also caters to tourists with beach resorts, hotels and a theme park.
The family’s businesses also won major contracts in the run-up to the 2022 FIFA World Cup in Qatar — constructing a training venue, building one of the biggest complexes to house workers and providing security at several stadiums. Their lifestyle unit runs a number of high-end restaurants and clubs, helping bring an outpost of New York’s buzzy Italian restaurant Carbone to Doha, among others. More recently, their companies are also generating business in Syria as the post-war rebuild picks up.
The brothers
moved from Syria to Qatar in 2011, when Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim Al-Thani was the emirate’s prime minister. Their relocation coincided with the outbreak of the Syrian revolution that ultimately ended the more than half-century rule of the Al-Assads.
The Al-Khayyats, originally hailing from Damascus, are now seen as a popular choice for foreign companies seeking partners when pursuing opportunities in Syria as the economy reopens, people with knowledge of the matter said. UCC Holding, the construction firm and energy contractor controlled by the family, has already been involved in consortia that recently won multibillion-dollar power and airport deals.
Share SurgeEstithmar’s surging shares suggest investors are betting they’re likely to profit from further opportunities in Syria, while also playing a leading role in the next phase of Qatar’s economic diversification, according to Phibion Makuwerere, a Doha-based analyst at QNB Financial Services. He’s the only person to give a price target on the conglomerate in the past year, data compiled by Bloomberg show.
The stock has jumped 152% in Doha trading over the last 12 months, giving Estithmar a market valuation of $4.3 billion. That trounced the 8% gain in the benchmark Qatar Exchange Index and the 38% rise in the
MSCI Emerging Markets Index over the same period.
“What they’ve achieved — you have to be very savvy,” Makuwerere said.
With a citizenry numbering less than 400,000, Qatar, like many Gulf countries, has relied largely on foreigners to help build the economy and run its services over its five-plus decades as a sovereign state. Some of the biggest family businesses in the United Arab Emirates, Oman and elsewhere have ancestral ties to places such as Iran and India. Lebanon’s Hariri family, for example, made a fortune in Saudi Arabia beginning in the 1970s by becoming a go-to construction group for the ruling Al-Saud family.
Since Ahmed Al-Sharaa took over in Syria, Qatari companies have reemerged as active players on deals in the country, as well as firms from Saudi Arabia. Syrian officials have spoken highly of the Al-Khayyats’ role.
“They’ve had this relationship for the last 15 years,” Economy Minister Mohammad Nidal Al-Shaar said of the family’s links with the country. “It’s natural for them to continue their support, which existed since the beginning of the revolution.”
Central to Syria’s vision is the transformation of Damascus International Airport. In August, the Syrian government unveiled a more than $4 billion project involving a consortium led by the Al-Khayyats’ UCC Holding, with a view towards boosting annual visitors. UCC also recently signed a preliminary agreement with Chevron Corp. and Syrian Petroleum Co. for offshore oil and gas exploration.
While some sanctions remain in place on Syria’s banking sector, the country is likely to prioritize vital sectors from infrastructure to power, according to Charbel Abou Charaf, a London-based partner at White & Case, which is representing the Al-Khayyats on several transactions.
“The family’s deep ties in both Syria and Qatar created a dual positioning that makes them effective intermediaries,” said Nanar Hawach, a senior analyst at International Crisis Group. “They are integrated into Qatar’s state‑capital ecosystem while retaining the cultural and political access as Syrians.”
Ruling FamilyThe Al-Khayyats’ connection to Qatar is said to date back to before their move to the country, thanks to one of the ruling Al-Thani clan’s favorite pastimes: camel racing. Their construction firm worked on a racetrack — as well as private mansions — for the Qatari royal family in the historic Syrian oasis city of Palmyra, people with knowledge of the matter said. That job was perceived in some quarters as helping them win them trust in Doha, according to the people.
A representative for the brothers said any deals their companies have won were through proper channels and tenders and are “testament to the success and professionalism of the relevant companies.” Any contact with government authorities “is strictly in relation to business matters and the projects with which they are involved.”
Several companies that won contracts for the World Cup in Qatar — including firms backed by the Al-Khayyats — drew scrutiny over their alleged treatment of migrant workers. Businesses operating in the country at the time of the global tournament were subject to compliance requirements and regular audits, and any labor issues were addressed through established regulatory and legal mechanisms, the brothers’ representative said.
Other relatives have sometimes featured in negative headlines. Mohammad Hamsho, a maternal uncle to Moutaz and Ramez, was a prominent Syrian businessman during the rule of Bashar Al-Assad. The US Treasury Department sanctioned him in 2011, alleging his purported links to political insiders had helped him win his fortune. Hamsho said in a statement that he didn’t obtain his business interests through political connections, adding that the “allegations referenced in sanctions designations are disputed and do not constitute judicial findings.”
The Syrian government’s illicit gains committee
announced last month it had reached an official settlement with Hamsho under its voluntary disclosure program. Hamsho
said that the agreement would help with “formalizing the legal status, and opening a new chapter, without engaging in any debates or discussions related to previous stages.” A representative for the Al-Khayyat brothers said they had no proximity to the former Syrian regime and have not had any business links with Hamsho.
Meanwhile, Estithmar executives have been touting the conglomerate’s wide reach on recent earnings calls, spanning Egyptian real estate to Libyan hospitals and Jordanian airport contracts. The firm runs a top Qatari hospital in partnership with US medical group Cedars-Sinai, while Baladna is working on a $3.5 billion Algerian project that will help the country become more self-sufficient in dairy products.
Power International Holding, the closely-held parent company overseeing many of the brothers’ operations, has a construction unit that helped build the Mall of Qatar, as well as a real estate arm with projects like a Waldorf Astoria resort in the Maldives and a Baghdad luxury hotel. Energy concessions are also a major driver for PIH, which has won deals for a central Asian gas pipeline network. It also runs a Kazakh wireless operator and has been expanding into Guyana.
In the UK, the family has plowed some of its money into real estate. In recent years they’ve controlled a number of luxury properties around the most exclusive parts of the British capital, including the tony Mayfair district as well as the Knightsbridge neighborhood that’s home to the Harrods department store, filings show.
The Al-Khayyats used to own the site of London’s former Naval Club, which historically hosted members like Louis Mountbatten, uncle of the late Prince Philip, according to property records. They had hoped to turn the Georgian townhouse into a private residence, but sold it for £40 million in 2023 after deciding conversion costs would be prohibitive, a person with knowledge of the matter said.
The brothers have also recently been seen alongside US political figures. Moutaz and Ramez joined other luminaries attending one of the inauguration balls for President Donald Trump at the start of last year,
posing with Massad Boulos, a senior adviser to the administration on Arab and African affairs. Several months later, they were sitting alongside another Trump envoy, Tom Barrack, at a signing ceremony for Syrian power projects.
The Al-Khayyats could encourage other businessmen to return to the country, according to Reinoud Leenders, an associate professor at King’s College London who specializes in Middle Eastern studies. The brothers “appear to be uniquely well-placed in an emerging network that connects Syrian, Gulf and US decisionmakers and companies who are together shaping Syria’s reconstruction,” he said.
“Key to the Syrian transitional government’s strategy have been aggressive efforts to attract capital and investments to kickstart much-needed economic recovery,” Leenders said. “The Khayyat brothers have been playing a key role.”
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