Qatar's Confidence Boost For Brexit Britain

Undeterred by gloomy post-Brexit predictions, Qatar is investing billions in the UK

“It makes sense to invest in countries that will produce long-lasting and stable returns”

- Mohammed Aly Sergie, Alaa Shahine and Dinesh Nair

Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund plans to expand in the U.K. and the U.S., as top officials said long-term commercial opportunities would outweigh political uncertainty roiling the two countries.

The gas-rich Gulf emirate will add 5 billion pounds ($6.3 billion) to its U.K. portfolio in the next three to five years, and will set up an office soon in San Francisco -- its second in the U.S. after New York. The focus will be on infrastructure, technology, healthcare and real estate, they said.

The plans were announced on Monday in London, and the investments could help signal that the U.K. remains an attractive destination for foreign capital even after it leaves the European Union. Prime Minister Theresa May is set to begin the two-year clock on Brexit negotiations on Wednesday.

“We look at our investments purely on a commercial basis,” Finance Minister Ali Shareef Al Emadi told Bloomberg Television’s Nejra Cehic in an interview, responding to a question on whether turbulent Brexit talks would change Qatar’s view. “We were heavily investing in the U.K. and Europe during the financial crisis. Most of our investments are very much long-term.”

Qatar, the world’s biggest exporter of liquefied natural gas, is already a major investor on both sides of the Atlantic. It has assets valued at more than 35 billion pounds in the U.K., including London landmarks such as the Harrods department store, The Savoy hotel and the Shard skyscraper. The Qatar Investment Authority has also invested more than 60 percent of the $35 billion dollars it has dedicated to the U.S.