Qatar postpones float of £7.8bn investment firm

A PLANNED flotation of Doha Global Investment Company, a £7.8 billion Qatari firm backed by assets from the Gulf state’s sovereign wealth fund, has been postponed pending necessary approvals, a senior official revealed yesterday.

Qatar unveiled plans to create the investment company in February, saying its sovereign fund arm, Qatar Holding, will transfer about £2bn worth of assets into the new firm, with a similar amount raised in an initial public offering (IPO) on the Qatar Exchange.

That IPO has been postponed “until all requirements and approvals from the concerned authorities are obtained,” according to Hussein Ali Al ­Abdullah, acting chairman of both Qatar Holding and the bourse.

A new date for the IPO will be announced, Abdullah said, without providing any additional details.

l State-run Kuwait Airways will spend £2bn buying 25 Airbus jets, and aims to lease a further 13 to upgrade its ageing fleet, according to a report yesterday in the Al-Watan newspaper. The aircraft would start to be delivered in 2019, the daily newspaper said.