That may be true, but to get the real perspective, this is the size of Qatar:
And what, 200,000 citizens? Imagne the per-capita numbers!
Posted on 06/27/2008 9:29:24 PM PDT by bruinbirdman
There are fewer than a million people in the tiny Gulf state of Qatar and fewer than 200,000 of them are ethnic Qataris.
Yet this week a state fund that invests on behalf of the Qatari people and a private fund owned by the country's prime minister and his family agreed to buy nearly 8pc of Barclays, a bank with a market cap of almost £20bn.
And for the state fund, a billion or so on Barclays is small change. The Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) already has $60bn (£29bn) of assets and expects to spend billions of pounds more overseas this year.
Qatar doesn't have a single drop of natural surface water. But it more than makes up for it with another liquid - oil, pumping 500,000 barrels of the stuff a day. And although its known oil reserves will run out in 2023, Qatar has got the world's third largest natural gas reserves in its back pocket.
With oil prices hitting $140 a barrel this week, Qatari just can't spend money as quickly as it can make it.
In 2003, it formed the QIA to put those petrodollars to work at home and abroad. Qatar's prime minister Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim Al Thani, is chief executive of the fund, which is run on a day-to-day basis by Dr Yousef Hussain Kamal. The fund's stated mission is to invest in a diverse range of assets classes to make money for the Qatari people.
In the past three years, as petrol prices have continued on a seemingly unstoppable upwards trajectory, the fund has spent freely, particularly in Britain, the country which was its colonial master until 1971.
Alistair Newton, senior political analyst at Lehman Brothers, said: "First of all the Qataris stepped up investment because they've got a lot more money.
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
They need to diversify because the oil money won’t last forever.
That may be true, but to get the real perspective, this is the size of Qatar:
And what, 200,000 citizens? Imagne the per-capita numbers!
"Qatar has got the world's third largest natural gas reserves in its back pocket."
yitbos
They are diversifying … they are buying America, Britain all countries west. ;-)
We have plenty of companies to sell 8% of.
yitbos
8% here, 8% there … and suddenly they own a country. ;-)
yitbos
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