Qatar Holding LLC, the investment arm of the country’s sovereign-wealth fund, plans to open Harrods hotels in cities including London, New York and Paris to build the British luxury retailer it bought two years ago into a global brand.
“We have already decided to build a Harrods Hotel in London, one in Kuala Lumpur and one in Sardinia, Italy,”
Qatar Holding Vice Chairman Hussain Ali Al-Abdulla told reporters in the Malaysian capital today. “We are looking to invest more in Malaysia because we think the economy is growing.” The Doha-based fund signed an agreement with Malaysian partners today to build a hotel in Kuala Lumpur’s Bukit Bintang shopping district, Hussain said. About 2 billion ringgit ($634 million) will be spent on the development and construction will start in a year. It didn’t provide specifics about plans for London or Italy. Qatar Holding paid 1.5 billion pounds ($2.3 billion) for Harrods in 2010, including its landmark store in London’s Knightsbridge district, which opened in 1849 and counted Sigmund Freud and Oscar Wilde among its customers. The fund will establish a hotel-management company to seek out projects around the world. It prefers to build on sites already owned by Qatar Holding or its affiliates, such as London’s Chelsea Barracks site or Sardinia’s Costa Smeralda, according to a joint statement by Qatar Holdings and Harrods Ltd.
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Qatar Holding Vice Chairman Hussain Ali Al-Abdulla told reporters in the Malaysian capital today. “We are looking to invest more in Malaysia because we think the economy is growing.” The Doha-based fund signed an agreement with Malaysian partners today to build a hotel in Kuala Lumpur’s Bukit Bintang shopping district, Hussain said. About 2 billion ringgit ($634 million) will be spent on the development and construction will start in a year. It didn’t provide specifics about plans for London or Italy. Qatar Holding paid 1.5 billion pounds ($2.3 billion) for Harrods in 2010, including its landmark store in London’s Knightsbridge district, which opened in 1849 and counted Sigmund Freud and Oscar Wilde among its customers. The fund will establish a hotel-management company to seek out projects around the world. It prefers to build on sites already owned by Qatar Holding or its affiliates, such as London’s Chelsea Barracks site or Sardinia’s Costa Smeralda, according to a joint statement by Qatar Holdings and Harrods Ltd.
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