From PSG’s strip to the Gaza Strip: critical issues for those managing Qatar’s money after 7 October
Qatar’s balance sheet is a study in diversification. Its assets stretch from PSG’s strip to Hamas in the Gaza Strip. Qatar presents itself as a responsible and even indispensable state actor, not just through its investment in high profile football clubs but in its “intermediation” in the ongoing hostage crisis. Yet it is simultaneously providing sanctuary to Hamas leaders and a mouthpiece for terrorism through its control of Al-Jazeera. While any steps to secure the release of the hostages is welcome, Qatar’s involvement has been motivated by a cynical desire to score points. The hostages are not points; they are human beings. It was Oscar Wilde who said that a cynic is a man who knows the price of everything and the value of nothing.
How, then, should investment managers and the boards of alternative investment funds think about Qatari sovereign wealth invested in their funds?
The industry practice of widespread delegation by largely non-executive offshore boards has created siloed workstreams where the legality of accepting money from a particular investor is treated as a proxy for consideration of the consequences of accepting that money. That approach is shockingly flawed. The first is a backwards-looking exercise, the second needs to be forwards-looking.
These issues are discussed in the new issue of the Butterworths Journal of International Banking and Financial Law published by LexisNexis.