QBA Roundtable with French Investment Funds in cooperation with the French Embassy in Doha

The Qatari Businessmen Association (QBA) organized today a roundtable with representatives of three of France's leading investment funds, Ardian, Iris Capital and LBO France, in cooperation with the French Embassy in Doha and in the presence of H.E. Franck Gellet, the French Ambassador to Doha

QBA Members were represented by Sheikh Faisal Bin Fahad al Thani attended, along with Mr. Abdulsalam Abu Issa, Sheikh Khalid Bin Nawaf Al Thani, Mr. Mohamed Althaf, Mr. Ihsan Al Khiyami. Also, Sheikh Nawaf Bin Jabor Al Thani, Managing Director Al Jabor Trading attended, in addition to representatives from distinguished Private sector companies such as Al Mana Group, Al Sawari Group and Al Balagh for Trading.
Also, representatives from Qatar Free Zones, Qinvest, BNP Paribas and Invest house attended the roundtable, as well as Ms. Sarah Abdulla, QBA Deputy General Manager
At the beginning of the meeting, QBA Members welcomed the distinguished guests, expressing the willingness to strengthen the Qatari-French ties. Sheikh Faisal bin Fahad confirmed the Qatari businessmen awareness of the great potential the French market offers, adding that the Qatari businessmen are always in search of profitable investments and successful partnership opportunities to expand their business. The meeting highlighted the strength and the diversity of the French private equity industry with the participation of three leading fund managers: Ardian private equity, Iris Capital and LBO France

From his side, H.E. Franck Gellet thanked everyone for the meeting and 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, Mr. Amine Chaehoi, Head of Commercial department, 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. Mr. Amine stated 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.

Mr. Amine's presentation also highlighted France's reforms to lift investment constraints and accelerate development, these reforms include corporate tax reduction and low capital taxes, creating a flexible labor 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, Mr. Abdul Salam Abu Issa talked about the French-Qatari relations, pointing out that France is one of the largest economic partners of the State of Qatar where the two countries have close economic and trade relations and that both countries have a firm economic policy in the fields of trade and investment 

As for the investment funds, the representative of Ardian gave a brief presentation on the most important investment areas of the fund, which includes 5 main areas with a value of $ 96 BN as managed assets, this includes “Fund of Funds” with a value of US $53 BN, “Direct Funds” with a value of US $ 19 BN, “Infrastructure” (US $ 16 BN), “Private debt”worth US $ 7 BN and “Real Estate” worth US $ 1 BN. He pointed out that 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

As for Iris Capital Fund, the team also gave a presentation in which they 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. They also stated achieving about 300 million euros of return on 30 million euros invested in 2019

Finally, the representative of LBO France explained how the fund works as a unique investment platform that offers strategies for private equity, real estate, investment capital and debt. He also reviewed the most important sectors in which the Fund has invested: Luxury & Leisure, industry, F&B and consumer goods, information technology and health care.

It is worth mentioning that France is one of the favorite destinations for Qatari investors abroad where the Qatari investments are estimated at $ 30 billion, of which private investments amount to $ 10 billion.
Also, France is 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 16 billion euros in several fields