Qatar appoints new chief for sovereign fund
Qatar‘s sovereign wealth fund yesterday appointed a member of the emirate’s royal family to replace its chief executive.
The Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), which manages as much as $300bn (£191bn), including significant stakes in Barclays, Credit Suisse, Sainsbury’s and London department store Harrods, has named Sheikh Abdullah bin Mohammed bin Saud Al-Thani as CEO.
He will take over from Ahmed Al-Sayed as the new head of one of the world’s most powerful sovereign wealth funds, according to the Qatar News Agency.
Sheikh Abdullah is currently chairman of Ooredoo, a Gulf telecoms company, and a former chief of the royal court.
The change comes only a year after al-Sayed took up the role in the days after Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al-Thani passed the reigns of power of the resource-rich Gulf state to his son, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani.
The emir also ordered a reshuffle of QIA’s board of directors, according to the news agency.
QIArecently agreed to buy HSBC’s global headquarters for £1.1bn, the largest transaction for a single building in the history of the London market.
Source: cityam – Qatar appoints new chief for sovereign fund
