Qatar owns Harrods department store, 95 per cent of the Shard skyscraper in London, and has stakes in Heathrow airport, British Airways, Barclays bank, plus Sainsbury's.”
Harrods Limited is a British luxury department store located on Brompton Road in Knightsbridge, London, England. It is owned by Harrods Ltd, a company currently owned by the state of Qatar via its sovereign wealth fund, the Qatar Investment Authority.
Qatar bought Harrods in 2010 for about £1.5bn. The former emir also owns luxury brands Valentino, Balmain and Pal Zileri, including their salubrious London outlets.
What does Qatar own around the world? | CNBC Explains
What do Qatar own in London?
Qatari investments in the UK
Among the most notable investments include Harrods, the Shard building, Canary Wharf and a stake in the London Stock Exchange. Qatar Investment Authority also owns 22% of Sainsbury and nearly 6% in Barclays bank. It also has a 20% stake in Heathrow Airport Holdings.
The Qatari government also owns luxury department store Harrods and 5* hotel Claridge's in London. And in our day-to-day life it has significant shareholdings some of our biggest brands. Bank with Barclays, shop at Sainsbury's or use Heathrow airport, and Qatar benefits.
High end department store chain Harrods was purchased by Qatar Holding in May, 2010 for 1.5 billion British pounds (around US$2.3 billion at the time). Aside from the 330 stores, the Harrods brand also includes the Harrods Bank, Harrods Estates, Harrods Aviation and Air Harrods.
Heathrow Airport Holdings Limited is in turn owned by FGP Topco Limited, a consortium owned and led by the infrastructure specialist Ferrovial S.A. (25.00%), Qatar Investment Authority (20.00%), Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ) (12.62%), GIC (11.20%), Australian Retirement Trust (11.18%), China Investment ...
"Little Doha" is the nickname given to an area of Mayfair in central London that has a high concentration of properties owned by the Al-Thani family, the ruling family of Qatar, and their relatives and associates. By 2006, Qatari interests owned £1 billion of property in London, and a quarter of Mayfair's 279 acres.
A cursory look at Property Week shows that the Qatari Investment Authority, Qatari Holding and Qatari Diar own 23,253,699 square feet of London, making Qatar the largest owner of London property. Reports vary about the sum invested, alleged to be £35 billion.
The airport is owned and operated by Heathrow Airport Holdings, owned mostly by FGP and Qatar Investment Authority and CDPQ.. In 2022, it was the second-busiest airport in the world by international passenger traffic and the busiest airport in Europe as per March 2023.
From the Harrods department store, the Ritz hotel and a significant chunk of Heathrow Airport, to an industrial unit in the West Sussex town of Crawley and an Essex farm, Qatar and its citizens have amassed UK assets and influence via the vast wealth – and disposable income – generated by its huge North Field gas ...
The holding company, J Sainsbury plc, is split into three divisions: Sainsbury's Supermarkets Ltd (including convenience shops), Sainsbury's Bank, and Argos. As of 2021, the largest overall shareholder is the sovereign wealth fund of Qatar, the Qatar Investment Authority, which holds 14.99% of the company.
According to The Times, the Savoy is part-owned by Qatar's sovereign wealth fund, the Ritz was bought by a Qatari businessman who is the brother-in-law of Qatar's rulers in 2020, and the Connaught is owned by Hamad bin Jassim, who was Qatar's prime minister when Hamas relocated to Doha.
Qatar's sovereign wealth fund has sold more than one-third of its stake in Barclays for £510m, marking its biggest sale of shares in the UK bank since piling in to help it avert a UK state rescue in 2008.
Heathrow Airport boasts a diverse group of stakeholders with the Spanish firm Ferrovial currently holding the largest share at 25 per cent. The ownership structure also includes Qatar Investment Authority holding a 20 per cent stake and China Investment Corporation with 10 per cent.
Ferrovial, the former majority owner of Heathrow, announced in November that it had agreed to sell its 25% stake in Heathrow for £2.4 billion ($3 billion), with 15% going to Ardian and 10% going to the Saudi PIF. The deal valued the airport at £9.5 billion ($12 billion).
Central Group, controlled by the Thai Chirathivat family, and Austrian real estate specialists Signa Group, will take control of Selfridges in a 50-50 joint venture. It is understood they have beaten off a raft of rival bids, including from the Qatar Investment Authority which owns Harrods.
The Qatari Investment Authority fund bought Harrods in 2010, paying Mohammed al-Fayed a reported £1.5bn for Britain's most famous department store. In 2015 another Qatari investment group bought the Maybourne Group, which owns Claridge's, the Connaught, and the Berkeley, after years of wrangling over ownership.
The state of Qatar's holdings in Scotland are worth £14.3m. This includes Cluny Estate, near Laggan, and its fishing rights, at a total value of £7.3m. Qatar also owns Eilean Aigas Estate, which is on a private island near Beauly, valued at £7m.
The UK and Qatar signed a new Strategic Investment Partnership (SIP) which will see Qatar invest up to £10 billion over the next five years in key sectors of the UK economy, including fintech, zero emissions vehicles, life sciences and cyber security.
