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Qatar's royal family: luxury's silent investor
The Qatari ruling family has become a major luxury player.© Studio Pachamama

Running Story
Qatar's royal family: luxury's silent investor

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 Hotels Group, 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.

Qatar's royal family: luxury's silent investor
The Qatari ruling family has become a major luxury player.© Studio Pachamama

Former Qatar PM invests in fashion

While the former emir and his wife already control Valentino and Balmain, Qatar's ex-prime minister Hamad bin Jassem Jabr Al Thani, known as HBJ, has taken control of the Milanese quiet luxury brand Eleventy.

LogoSubscribers only Italy, Qatar Families 21.10.2025

Qatar's Al Thani family finalises plans for its jewel at Place Vendôme

The Qatari ruling family is increasing it efforts to renovate one of its main real estate assets in Paris, located at the intersection of Rue Saint-Honoré and Place Vendôme. The Al Thanis paid nearly €180m to buy the strategic address.

LogoSubscribers only France, Qatar Families 16.10.2025

Golden Miles
How Doha lords it over its Place Vendôme tenants

The Qatari royal family owns five of the properties that line the square at the epicentre of Parisian luxury goods. Its relations with those who rent them have been fraught.

The Al Thani dynasty reigns supreme in Paris's land of luxury, Place Vendôme.
LogoSubscribers only France Entourage 09.10.2025
The Al Thani dynasty reigns supreme in Paris's land of luxury, Place Vendôme.

Goldsmith of Napoleon (and of Saudi royal family) seeks to drum up funds

Since purchasing Odiot in 2024, Gilles-Emmanuel Trutat, a Swiss-based private debt investor, has been raising money and is hoping to issue a couple of corporate bonds.

LogoSubscribers only France Houses 11.09.2025

Kering reckons with cost of purchase option for Valentino

When it acquired a 30% stake in Valentino in November 2023, the luxury goods company took out an option to buy up the remaining 70% from its Qatari owner Mayhoola over the next two years.

LogoSubscribers only France, Italy Houses 02.09.2025

How Balmain came to deprive boss of its shareholder of jewellery licence

The private company of Rachid Mohamed Rachid, who runs Mayhoola, the main shareholder in Balmain, has lost its contract to make jewellery for the luxury fashion house.

LogoSubscribers only France Houses 17.07.2025

Arnault family eyes Al Thani apartment opposite Eiffel Tower

As revealed by Glitz, the four-storey property overlooking the Champ-de-Mars that belongs to the emir of Qatar's cousin is up for sale - and the owners of LVMH have rushed to the front of the queue.

LogoSubscribers only France, Qatar Families 26.06.2025

Al Thani family puts mansion opposite Eiffel Tower up for sale

Sheikh Hamad bin Abdullah Al Thani, a cousin of the emir of Qatar, has put a vast four-storey residence once owned by writer Paul Morand on the market, just steps from the Eiffel Tower. Members of the Arnault family also own property in the same building.

LogoSubscribers only France Families 19.06.2025

Luxury financier Michaël Benabou moves to Luxembourg

After selling his stake in online retailer Veepee in 2014, Michaël Benabou has spent 10 years reinvesting in tech, luxury goods and high-end property. A shareholder in private sales organiser Arlettie and second-hand site Monogram, among others, he is preparing to move his family office to Luxembourg.

LogoSubscribers only France, Luxembourg Families 06.03.2025

Qatar overhauls The Peninsula Paris hotel management

Katara Hospitality, a subsidiary of Qatar's sovereign wealth fund, has carried out a major overhaul of the management of the heavily-indebted The Peninsula Paris.

LogoSubscribers only France, Qatar Entourage 06.03.2025

Hotel hostilities: former Qatari prime minister sued in Paris for unpaid fees

The gruelling legal battle initiated in the US and UK between Qatar's former PM Hamad bin Jassem and Irish hotel magnate Patrick McKillen will see a third instalment in Paris next month. McKillen claims his former business partner owes him fees for the construction of a hotel in the French capital.

LogoSubscribers only Qatar, United Kingdom Families 30.05.2024

Front Row
Sheikha Moza, invisible luxury royalty

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.

Sheikha Moza bint Nasser Al-Missned, the Emir of Qatar's mother.
LogoSubscribers only Qatar Families 15.02.2024
Sheikha Moza bint Nasser Al-Missned, the Emir of Qatar's mother.

Spotlight
Former Qatar PM works to grow ultra-luxury hotel empire in the US

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.

The former prime minister of Qatar, Hamad bin Jassim, known as HBJ.
LogoSubscribers only Qatar, United States Families 22.06.2023
The former prime minister of Qatar, Hamad bin Jassim, known as HBJ.

Former Qatari PM selects Ritz Paris architect for Left Bank luxury hotel 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.

LogoSubscribers only France, Qatar Families 25.05.2023

Spotlight
Abu Dhabi squares off with Qatar in race to buy up luxury brands

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.

Sheikha Moza bint Nasser Al-Missned and Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, national security adviser to the emir of Abu Dhabi.
LogoSubscribers only Qatar, UAE Families 20.04.2023
Sheikha Moza bint Nasser Al-Missned and Tahnoon bin Zayed Al Nahyan, national security adviser to the emir of Abu Dhabi.

Sheikha Moza's favourite fund pours millions into Balmain to keep it humming

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.

LogoSubscribers only France, Qatar Families 09.02.2023

Spotlight
The Mayhoola fund and its royal backer fight for success with bottomless budget and trips to court

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.

Rachid Mohamed Rachid, chairman of the Qatari fund Mayhoola for Investments, and Sheikha Moza bint Nasser Al-Missned, mother of the current Emir of Qatar.
LogoSubscribers only France, Qatar Families 02.02.2023
Rachid Mohamed Rachid, chairman of the Qatari fund Mayhoola for Investments, and Sheikha Moza bint Nasser Al-Missned, mother of the current Emir of Qatar.

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The Qatari ruling family has become a major luxury player.

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