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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

Spotlight | Qatari ruling family
Valentino, Kering and Balmain stakes change hands within Al Thani family

The death of former emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani this summer has reshuffled the dynasty's investments in luxury houses. Following our revelations about the carve-up of the family's luxury hotel portfolio, Glitz details the upheaval underway at the holding company that houses its luxury stakes.

Qatari royal Sheikha al-Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani now oversees the family holding company that controls Valentino and Balmain.
LogoSubscribers only Families 03.11.2026
Qatari royal Sheikha al-Mayassa bint Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani now oversees the family holding company that controls Valentino and Balmain.

Qatari ruling family
Al-Thani dynasty divvies up Maybourne Hotels following patriarch's death

The ex-emir of Qatar Hamad bin ⁠Khalifa al-Thani, who died in July, held a 50% stake in the high-end hotel group together with his cousin, former PM Hamad bin Jassem Jabr al-Thani. His heirs, who are at daggers drawn with their father's partner, are busy unwinding the cross-shareholdings.

The HBK and HBJ clans are locked in a tussle for control of Maybourne’s luxury hotels.
LogoSubscribers only Families 03.09.2026
The HBK and HBJ clans are locked in a tussle for control of Maybourne’s luxury hotels.

Qatari royals
Qatari dynasty racks up colossal losses with Valentino and Balmain

As luxury investments belonging to former emir Hamad bin Khalifa Al Thani are being redistributed to his heirs, the fashion brands controlled by the dynasty are running up staggering losses.

Mayhoola's luxury concerns have been losing money hand over fist.
LogoSubscribers only Families 30.07.2026
Mayhoola's luxury concerns have been losing money hand over fist.

In Focus | Qatar's ruling family
Who will inherit former emir's luxury assets?

After abdicating as emir in 2013, Hamad bin ⁠Khalifa Al Thani, who died on 12 July at the age of 74, built up a vast investment portfolio in high-end real estate, hotels and luxury goods.

Hamad bin ⁠Khalifa Al Thani built up a vast luxury portfolio in the last decade of his life.
LogoSubscribers only Families 16.07.2026
Hamad bin ⁠Khalifa Al Thani built up a vast luxury portfolio in the last decade of his life.

Front Row | Qatari ruling family
The rise and fall of Princess Noor Al-Thani on the Paris luxury scene

Although Qatar's ruling family has become a key player in the luxury sector through its stakes in Valentino, Balmain and Maybourne and its Kering partnership, the individual ventures of some of its members have not been so successful.

The shadow of Sheikha Noor al-Thani looms over a series of legal disputes in Paris.
LogoSubscribers only Families 09.04.2026
The shadow of Sheikha Noor al-Thani looms over a series of legal disputes in Paris.

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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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 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.

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The Qatari ruling family has become a major luxury player.

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