Qatar Active Asset Management Platform Doubles to QAR5 Billion
The extra QAR2.4 billion in new cash lifts the QIA-backed platform to about US$1.4 billion, with four managers running active Qatar equity funds.
Doha Investment is doubling the Qatar Active Asset Management Initiative to QAR5 billion, roughly US$1.4 billion, up from QAR2.6 billion. The additional QAR2.4 billion is being funded with new cash.
The platform, launched in September, manages the domestic holdings of the Qatar Investment Authority. QIA set the programme up in 2024 and has invested QAR2.6 billion through it so far.
Four managers currently take part: Ashmore Group, Fiera Capital, Franklin Templeton and Lesha Bank. Ashmore was the first to join, in January 2024, opening a Qatar equity fund with about US$200 million and QIA as anchor investor.
Each manager runs an active fund that picks stocks rather than tracking an index. QIA said when it set up the scheme that it would seed the funds with shares it held in companies listed on the Qatar Stock Exchange.
Sheikh Faisal bin Thani Al Thani, Minister of Commerce and Industry and Vice Chairman and Managing Director at Doha Investment, said the extra investment would help make the market more active and diversified and strengthen collaboration with leading asset managers.
The larger pool is meant to deepen liquidity and pull more institutions into the market, part of a wider push to grow Qatar's capital markets and its asset management sector. The programme works with global and local fund managers who have experience in Qatar and the Gulf. For QIA, it turns stakes in Qatari listed companies into mandates run by outside firms, with the sovereign fund acting as anchor investor.
Local and foreign managers that meet the criteria can join, including firms based in Asia. The announcement did not disclose those criteria. Doha Investment said new managers will continue to join regularly, without giving a timeline.
