The Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) has accelerated its investments in technology and is keeping the door open to strategic partnerships for technology investments, its CEO said yesterday.
In the US, the fund is focusing on “classic” sectors such as real estate, financials, and technology, Mansour Ibrahim al-Mahmoud told Reuters on the sidelines of an event in Doha, adding this was until the QIA revisits its strategy in the near future.
“We have already accelerated and we have done several investments in technology and we will keep the momentum until we increase our pie,” he said.
His comments came after sources told Reuters that Qatar’s $300bn sovereign fund was exploring more acquisitions in the technology sector.
The QIA and hedge fund Elliott Management Corp in December 2017 took Gigamon Inc, the US
networking software company, private for $1.6bn.
Al-Mahmoud said the fund was open to strategic partnerships in technology investments, but did not provide more details.
The QIA injected billions of dollars into Qatari banks last year to offset outflows from Gulf banks after Saudi Arabia, the UAE, Bahrain and Egypt imposed a diplomatic and commercial blockade on Doha.
The QIA has held talks with technology-focused private equity funds and is also considering purchasing direct stakes in technology firms and startups in a sector it is relatively underweight compared with other state-backed funds, say sources.
Financial sources said the the QIA’s technology focus was part of a rebalancing of its portfolio towards the US and Asia after building up a large European portfolio such as a stakes in Credit Suisse, London Stock Exchange and Volkswagen.
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