Qatar Fund mulls investments in Lanka

The second largest sovereign investment company in the Gulf region hopes to invest in Sri Lanka's stock market.

"We do not want to launch new development or construction projects in Sri Lanka but are exploring the possibility of purchasing completed and implementation-ready assets as our entry strategy.

"We also hope to invest in the Colombo stock market," Head of Industrials and TMT Investments, Qatar Holdings (QH), Mohammad Saif Al Suwaidi told Industry and Commerce Minister Rishard Bathiudeen when he paid a courtesy on the Minister in Colombo last week.

Al Suwaidi was accompanied by a three-member investment team. Director General, Department of Commerce, R. D. S. Kumararatne and officials were also present.

"We began to work closely with Sri Lanka in 2009. We are under a sovereign wealth fund but very much a commercial operation, looking for the best RoI for investors. Around 85% of our portfolio consists of overseas investments while the rest is concentrated in Qatar," said Al Suwaidi.

"We have investments in 30 countries. Our equity is from Qatari citizens' savings and, therefore, we are responsible to obtain the best returns for them," he said.

"We are ready to invest in Colombo's share market and prefer to deal with large corporates, rather than medium or small scale firms. We are interested in buying completed projects such as resort hotels or real estate projects," Al Suwaidi said.

"We are also keen on shopping malls and shopping arcades which are ready for implementation. Our minimum overseas investments are US $100-$150 million per project, and not less. We are even ready for projects of higher value," he said.

"We welcome QH to Sri Lanka and are ready to extend our fullest support. FDI to Sri Lanka in the first half of 2014 exceeded US $210 million. Today, we are on a drive to enhance tourism infrastructure and QH could find opportunities in it."

"Even dairy farming is a prospective sector for investment. New highways, wind-power and hydro power projects in the country would be other opportunities. As for the share market, this is a good time since after three years, our stock market crossed to 7,000-point mark in August," he said.

Qatar Holding LLC is the global investment arm of the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) which is also known as the Qatar Fund. QIA is the second largest sovereign wealth fund in the Gulf Cooperation Council region after the Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA).

QIA's QH was set up in 2006. QH invests internationally and locally in strategic private and public equity and in other direct investments and is considered to have a high profile global outreach.

Among QH's diverse international holdings are the UK retailer Sainsbury, Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse, Bank of America and Agricultural Bank of China. Its Credit Suisse stake is reportedly 6%.

Qatar is one of the world's richest countries.

The wide availability of oil and gas reserves has made Qatar the world's highest per-capita income country. In 2013, the State of Qatar topped World Bank's GDP per capita (on purchasing power parity - PPP) list, with a per capita value of $131,758. In 2013,

Qatar-Sri Lanka bilateral trade stood at US $ 66 million.