Through Luxembourg trusts, Qatar's royal family has become a major player in the luxury sector. From fashion heavyweight Valentino to five-star hotel chain Maybourne, the Al Thani dynasty has bought up one prestigious brand after the other, but the family goes to great lengths to ensure it is never identified as the ultimate beneficiary.
The emir of Qatar's mother is more open about her philanthropy work than her role in the fashion and luxury businesses. But Sheikha Moza bint Nasser Al-Missned has been pulling the strings behind every investment Doha's ruling family has made in those sectors over the past decade.
After establishing five-star hotels in France and the United Kingdom, developer Constellation Hotels, owned by former Qatari prime minister Hamad bin Jassim, is gearing up to expand in the United States. The group is teaming up with the Arnault family for the ambitious project.
Construction on a luxury hotel is set to begin soon on Paris's Ilot Saint-Germain, a former government building in the 7th arrondissement acquired by Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani's firm Constellation in 2019.
Behind the sale of an ailing French haute couture company, announced last week, lies an investment fund that belongs to the emir of Abu Dhabi's closest adviser. Like its Qatari rival Mayhoola, the new Gulf player is using its unlimited budget to build a portfolio of prestigious European brands.
Since its 2016 purchase of the fashion house founded by Pierre Balmain, the Mayhoola fund, sponsored by the Emir of Qatar's mother, has regularly invested tens of millions of euros in the company. But it remains in the red.
Actively backed by Sheikha Moza, the Emir of Qatar's mother, the Mayhoola for Investments fund is known for highly aggressive methods at odds with the hushed world of fashion. For four years, Mayhoola has been waging a legal campaign against the Taiwanese businesswoman Shaw-Lan Wang, accusing her of breaking a promise to sell it Lanvin.
