DOHA PRIME Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs His Excellency Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabor al Thani said on Monday that Qatar had no political motivations behind its business investments in France.
Qatar is not a country with great political ambitions ... and it wants no political role from its investments in France,” he said at a press conference in Doha. “We don’t do anything without coordinating with the French side,” he remarked.
France has proved attractive to Qatari investors who have bought Paris Saint-Germain football club and acquired three percent of energy giant Total as well as stakes in building firm Vinci and in media group Lagardere.
Qatar had postponed launching a fund for entrepreneurs from France’s deprived suburbs until after the presidential election last May to prevent it becoming a political football. The project remains frozen. Losing far-right candidate Marine Le Pen attacked Qatar for investing in what she said were mainly Muslim areas of French cities and said unnamed foreign countries wanted to develop Islamic fundamentalism in France.
Meanwhile, Qatar is studying a proposal to invest in the commodities trading arm of US investment bank Morgan Stanley, he said. “We are studying the proposal,” he said. “We probably need a few more weeks to review the details, but we are looking at it seriously,” the prime minister remarked.
On the Xstrata-Glencore merger, he said Qatar, the second- largest investor in miner Xstrata, “looks favourably” on the company’s proposed $32 billion takeover by commodities trader Glencore.
When asked if Qatar would support the tie-up, the prime minister said: “We are looking in favour of a merger between the two companies.” But he stopped short of signalling whether Qatar - a kingmaker in one of the mining industry’s biggest ever deals - would vote in support of a final offer from Glencore, made last month. Shareholders, who could get a date for a fresh meeting this week, are expected to vote early next month.
“It is under a lot of consideration and focus,” he said.
The prime minister did not comment specifically on whether Qatar was satisfied with all aspects of the revised offer, not least the management change that would bring in Glencore’s chief executive, Ivan Glasenberg, at the helm of the combined group. Sheikh Hamad said last month that Qatar had “no problem” with the new price, but was studying other aspects of the deal.
Gas-rich Qatar has built up a stake of more than 12 percent in Xstrata since Glencore announced its long-expected takeover offer in February. It is now the largest investor in the world’s fourth-largest diversified miner after Glencore.
“(Qatar’s) decision on the voting pattern has not yet been made,” a source familiar with the deal said, after the prime minister’s comments were published.
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