The Qatari Businessmen Association (QBA) members and French officials on the sidelines of the roundtable.
DOHA: The Qatari Businessmen Association (QBA) in cooperation with the French Embassy in Doha yesterday organised a roundtable with representatives of three of France’s leading investment funds including Ardian Private Equity, Iris Capital and LBO France. French Ambassador to Qatar Franck Gellet also attended the event.
QBA members were represented by prominent businessmen in Qatar including Sheikh Faisal Bin Fahad al Thani, Abdul Salam Abu Issa, Sheikh Khalid Bin Nawaf Al Thani, Mohamed Althaf, and Ihsan Al Khiyami.
The meeting was also attended by Sheikh Nawaf Bin Jabor Al Thani, Managing Director of Al Jabor Trading, and representatives from private sector companies such as Al Mana Group, Al Sawari Group, and Al Balagh for Trading.
Representatives from the Qatar Free Zones Authority, Qinvest, BNP Paribas and Invest house also attended the roundtable, including QBA Deputy General Manager Sarah Abdulla.
During the event, QBA members expressed their willingness to strengthen Qatari-French ties. Sheikh Faisal highlighted the potential opportunities offered by the French market, and added that Qatari businessmen are always in search of profitable investments and successful partnership opportunities to expand their business.
The meeting highlighted the strength and diversity of the French private equity industry. Gellet also stressed his aspiration to build on the very strong strategic relationship between France and Qatar. He added that the current economic environment in Qatar opens new areas of opportunities for Qatari-French cooperation in various sectors.
During the meeting, Amine Chaehoi, Head of Commercial department at Business France, presented the economic environment in France and the growth prospects as well as the export indicators and investment incentives provided to attract investors. He added that France was ranked second after England as the best destination for attracting foreign investments, followed by Germany, while occupying the first place in Europe as a destination for R&D and industrial projects.
Chaehoi also highlighted France’s reforms to lift investment constraints and accelerate development, which include corporate tax reduction and low capital taxes, creating a flexible labour market to promote employment, working to achieve regional equality through sustainable transport bill, deployment of 4G networks across the country and using fiber networks by 2022.
For his part, Abu Issa reiterated the growing French-Qatari relations, and added that France is one of the largest economic partners of Qatar, with both countries having close economic and trade relations, and firm economic policy in the fields of trade and investment.
During the meeting, a representative from Ardian presented the Fund’s five main areas with a value of $96bn as managed assets. This includes “Fund of Funds” (worth $53bn), “Direct Funds” (worth $19bn), “Infrastructure” (worth $16bn), “Private debt” (worth $7bn), and “Real Estate” (worth $1bn). The Fund’s investments cover most important European capitals and economic cities in the world such as London, Paris, Frankfurt, Zurich in addition to New York, Beijing, Tokyo, Singapore and others.
The team from Iris Capital Fund spoke about the privileges of French investment funds, especially with regard to academic excellence designed to stimulate entrepreneurship and strong financial and tax incentives that support the establishment of companies. The company achieved about €300m of return on €30m invested in 2019.
A representative from LBO France also explained how the fund works as a unique investment platform that offers strategies for private equity, real estate, investment capital and debt; and reiterated the most important sectors in which the Fund has invested including Luxury & Leisure, Industry, F&B and Consumer Goods, Information Technology and Health Care.
France is one of the favorite destinations for Qatari investors abroad where Qatari investments are estimated at $30bn, of which private investments amount to $10bn. France is also Qatar’s seventh economic partner and Doha is one of France’s leading trading partners in the Arabian Gulf region. It is also a destination for French companies with more than 200 French companies investing in various sectors in the Qatari market. Special contracts were signed between the two countries worth more than €16bn in several fields.
