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Qatar’s Sovereign Wealth Fund has signed a deal with Canadian asset manager Fiera Capital to establish a fund that invests $200 million in Qatar’s shares.
Estimated to manage $500 million, Qatar Investment Bureau is looking to expand Qatar’s financial centre into a regional hub for money managers.
The decline in oil prices is expected to slow Saudi Arabia’s large Saudi economy, where natural gas production is expected to nearly double by 2030. As the decline in oil prices is expected to slow down Saudi Arabia’s large Saudi economy, where its appetite for foreign trade is shrinking, it turns to the expected Petrodraal stairwell in Qatar.
QIA had fixed the $200 million Fiera Qatar Equity Fund in both cash and stock listed on the Qatar Stock Exchange, which said in a statement on Wednesday without providing details.
Toronto-listed Fiera, which manages the fund, is looking to open an office in Doha as part of the plan.
Like Saudi Arabia’s public investment fund, QIA is obliged to boost Qatar’s domestic economy and manage overseas assets such as London’s Canary Wharf and Heathrow Airport and Spanish energy group Iberdrola.
“Entreating overseas asset managers to invest in Qatar equity will encourage market participation and help diversify and expand the market,” said Mohamed Saif al-Sowadi, CEO of QIA.
Klaus Schuster, CEO of businesses in Europe, the Middle East and Africa at Fiera Capital, said it is the responsibility of the asset manager to “not only generate wealth for institutional investors, but also diversify Qatar’s capital markets.”
The announcement comes two days after Iran targeted a US military base in Qatar in retaliation for a US strike over nuclear infrastructure. Qatar’s military intercepted all but one of the missiles and no one was hurt, but the attempted strike temporarily involved a gas-rich country in the Israeli-Iran war.
The Fiera agreement is the second in the QIA program to partner with Active Fund Managers, with the first $200 million fund going to emerging market specialist Ashmore Group, which is also invested in Qatar List stocks. Ashmore said he opened his Doha office in May.
Meanwhile, QIA is trying to lure venture capital investors to Doha, with a $1 billion funding fund designed to support Qatar’s emerging emerging scene.
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Gulf Sovereign Funds are increasingly aiming to get more from money invested in external managers, hoping to open a prepost base in financial centres to diversify the economy, reduce dependence on fossil fuels and create an investment talent pool.
“When (partners) are ready to invest in the country and prepare to diversify your own economy, there are different levels of engagement,” QIA’s funding director Mohshin Pilzada told FT this year.
Last year, BlackRock opened an investment company in Saudi Arabia, pinned at $5 billion from PIF, and hedge funds, asset managers and private equity companies (from Brevan Howard to partner groups) have come closer to Abu Dhabi’s roughly 1.7 tonnes of sovereign investors. Fiera Capital opened its Abu Dhabi office last year.
“Today’s launch of the fund represents the next stage of growth (in the Fiera region),” the asset manager said in a statement to the FT.
