Qatar in talks with Egypt Wealth Fund over hotels investment

Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund is in talks with Egypt about potentially investing in seven historic hotels there, in what could be a landmark deal between the two countries that restored diplomatic ties in 2021 after a long-running dispute, Reuters reports.

The Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) is in talks with The Sovereign Wealth Fund of Egypt (TSFE) about the deal, said two sources, with knowledge of the matter, who declined to be named.

The Fund is considering acquiring a stake of up to 30 per cent in the hotels, the sources said, without naming them.

The $445 billion QIA declined to comment. Egypt’s TSFE did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Relations between Egypt and Qatar soured in the wake of the Arab Spring uprisings that toppled former Egyptian President, Hosni Mubarak. Qatar backed the Muslim Brotherhood’s subsequent rise to power, but it was later ousted by the military in 2013.

Regional heavyweight, Saudi Arabia, has led efforts to rebuild ties with Qatar and, along with Egypt, re-established diplomatic relations in 2021.

Egyptian President, Abdel Fattah Al-Sisi, met with Qatari Emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani, in Baghdad in August 2021, for the first time since ending the dispute. Relations since then have warmed.

Egypt, the Arab world’s most populous nation, is grappling with an economic crisis and its currency has plunged by roughly half in value since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine last year, which prompted foreign investors to pull more than $20 billion out of Egyptian treasury markets.

Qatar’s Finance Minister said, last month, his country was committed to injecting $5 billion of investments into Egypt’s struggling economy, as was promised last year.

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