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Last week saw the sovereign wealth fund of Qatar rising to become the biggest shareholder of Songbird Estates PLC, a company that owns a substantial part of the available Canary Wharf desk space to rent. This act has reinforced the interest of the Gulf investors in the real estate markets.

According to Qatar, the total investment of the company in the estates has reached to more than 350 million pounds. It stated that now, with the additional shares recently purchased, it owns 24% of Songbird.

A part of the Qatar investment Authority, Qatar Holding takes care of real estate investments for the authority. Qatar is a member of the board of the Canary Wharf Group and has three board memberships in Songbird.

It is also noteworthy that Qatar Holding has infused a huge sum into the Songbird treasury, enabling them to increase their stakes in Songbird further in terms of properties or future investments. It also has shares in other companies like the London Stock Exchange, J Sainsbury PLC, Barclays Plc and Credit Suisse Group.

Qatar Holding Chief Executive and Managing Director Ahmad al-Sayed pointed out that the company is quite happy about the recent share purchase deal, as the area of Canary Wharf is not only a perfect site for office space development but also is a safe investment for future. He also said that with proper management, the area could reap huge returns in near future.

Mr Sayed also added that from the response on the new shareholding deal, it is expected that the UK commercial market will continue to be more lucrative to them at a later time than it is now.

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 15th, 2009 at 6:13 am and is filed under Doing Business, Great Real Estate Tips, Plugs. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.