Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news. Our story today begins
Speaker 1: in a hotel, a Chraton, in Doha, the capital city
Speaker 1: of Qatar.
Speaker 2: It's right on the shore, a five store resort, very dramatic.
Speaker 2: It's kind of shaped like a pyramid.
Speaker 1: This is Devin Pendleton, who covers wealth for Bloomberg.
Speaker 2: A really extraordinary place. I mean there's no kind of
Speaker 2: hotel like it in the world.
Speaker 1: You might say the hotel is very nice, lots of amenities,
Speaker 1: hundreds of rooms, but this isn't what makes it so special,
Speaker 1: because this hotel in the middle of a country that
Speaker 1: is half the size of Vermont, has become a kind
Speaker 1: of nerve center for global politics.
Speaker 2: It's kind of a hotel come diplomatic hot spot.
Speaker 1: So this isn't just a regular old chraiton, absolutely.
Speaker 2: I mean it kind of quickly came to encapsulate this
Speaker 2: very kind of identity of Qatar, which is as a
Speaker 2: broker for the world, is a place where all different
Speaker 2: factions can come together to kind of broker difficult conflicts.
Speaker 1: This very hotel hosted representatives from the US and the
Speaker 1: Taliban to hammer out the US's withdrawal from Afghanistan. Russia
Speaker 1: and Iran convened here to negotiate energy policy amid Western sanctions.
Speaker 1: In the last six months, Qatar has been involved in
Speaker 1: ceasefire negotiations between Israel and Hamas. It is also engaged
Speaker 1: in the delicate dance of de escalating tensions between Israel
Speaker 1: and Iran after the two countries traded military strikes this month,
Speaker 1: raising the risk of a greater regional conflict. Qatar didn't
Speaker 1: become a diplomatic hotspot by accident. It's the result of
Speaker 1: a decade's long campaign. Over the last thirty years, Qatar
Speaker 1: and its royal family have amassed an enormous amount of money, property, influence,
Speaker 1: and attention, not all of it good. Today on the show,
Speaker 1: we tracked the meteoric rise of Qatar and its royal family,
Speaker 1: how they leveraged their wealth to become a global player
Speaker 1: and managed to put themselves in the center of one
Speaker 1: of the most important geopolitical negotiations on the planet. This
Speaker 1: is the big take from Bloomberg News. I'm Sarah Holder.
Speaker 1: Qatar's central role in Middle Eastern relations today might have
Speaker 1: been surprising even a few decades ago.
Speaker 2: So Qatar was for a long long time. It was
Speaker 2: this little country. It's kind of at the very tip.
Speaker 2: It's on a peninsula sticking into the Persian Gulf.
Speaker 1: Wealth reporter Devin Pendleton says that for years Qatar had
Speaker 1: to fight for its own existence.
Speaker 2: And for a long time it was contested by these
Speaker 2: very sort of powerful neighbors, powerful tribes really from Bahrain
Speaker 2: and from Saudi Arabia. The Ottoman Empire wanted it for
Speaker 2: a while, and so it was almost by twist of
Speaker 2: fate that they became their own independent country. And they
Speaker 2: were a British protectorate for a number of years. And
Speaker 2: back then, I mean, the country was so different than
Speaker 2: it is today. Their main source was a port, serving
Speaker 2: as a port for different ships coming and going and
Speaker 2: bringing goods, and also pearling diving for pearls which was
Speaker 2: sort of an economic mainstay in the region back then. Obviously,
Speaker 2: that didn't bring in tremendous amount of money. It was
Speaker 2: very poor country.
Speaker 1: That started to change in the nineteen forties when Qatar
Speaker 1: discovered oil reserves, but it wasn't a ton of oil,
Speaker 1: not nearly as much as some of its neighbors like
Speaker 1: Saudi Arabia. The real game changer for Qatar came in
Speaker 1: the seventies when it found it was also sitting on
Speaker 1: a lot of natural gas.
Speaker 2: Their reserves are absolutely enormous and they share it with Iran,
Speaker 2: and their share is absolutely huge. But it didn't really
Speaker 2: kind of you didn't see the effects hitting their economy
Speaker 2: until the nineteen nineties because during that time they were
Speaker 2: building up the technology to transform that natural gas into
Speaker 2: what we call liquified natural gas, and that is basically
Speaker 2: a process where you freeze it, freeze it, freeze it
Speaker 2: so that you can basically liquify it and then stack
Speaker 2: it onto ships and send it around. And that was
Speaker 2: an absolute windfall for the country. I mean, that's brought
Speaker 2: them in billions and billions of dollars.
Speaker 1: Today Qatar is one of the largest exporters of natural
Speaker 1: gas in the world. This explosive growth was particularly good
Speaker 1: news for Qatar's ruling family, the Althanis.
Speaker 2: The Alfani royal family has been the royal family and
Speaker 2: the country for generations and they are a very very
Speaker 2: big family. They take up most of the really significant
Speaker 2: leadership roles in the country, the Emir and the Prime Minister,
Speaker 2: the foreign minister, the Althani's They essentially are the country.
Speaker 1: In other words, a windfall for Katar meant a windfall
Speaker 1: for the Althanis. Devin crunched the numbers on just how
Speaker 1: wealthy the family is. Can you walk us through how
Speaker 1: vast the Althani's wealth is.
Speaker 2: It's so vast is to almost be a number that's
Speaker 2: really difficult to pin down, and a lot of it
Speaker 2: is because there is a degree of opacity between state
Speaker 2: money and personal money.
Speaker 1: All told, Devin says the al Thani family has a
Speaker 1: net worth of at least one hundred and fifty billion dollars,
Speaker 1: making it one of the wealthiest families on the planet,
Speaker 1: and that one hundred and fifty billion could be a
Speaker 1: lot higher. That's what Devin heard when she asked for
Speaker 1: comment on her findings.
Speaker 2: I think their exact words were highly speculative, based on
Speaker 2: guesswork and flawed extrapolation on background. Sources close to the
Speaker 2: family said it was low, but all of our calculations
Speaker 2: are deliberately conservative, and we try to be as conservative
Speaker 2: as possible. This is really best viewed as an at
Speaker 2: least number. But what's remarkable really is what the Guitaris
Speaker 2: have done with that money and how effectively they've reinvested it.
Speaker 2: I mean, they're very savvy investors and a lot of
Speaker 2: their investments have a lot to do with kind of
Speaker 2: promoting Qatar as a as a brand.
Speaker 1: The family has invested its billions all over the world,
Speaker 1: snapping up large shares of banks like Barclay's and stakes
Speaker 1: in some well known high end companies.
Speaker 2: Some of the ones that are fairly well known are
Speaker 2: you might have heard of the French department store chain
Speaker 2: proNT Pen. They own that they own some really well
Speaker 2: known luxury brands like Valentino, for example, they own seventy
Speaker 2: percent of Valentino. They also owned some really beautiful hotels
Speaker 2: in London, for example the Canna Hotel, Collarages Hotel, Wow Yeah.
Speaker 1: Qatar has also poured money into the international news agency
Speaker 1: Al Jazeera, and has become a major donor for colleges
Speaker 1: and universities all over the world. According to a Bloomberg analysis,
Speaker 1: Qatar is the single biggest donor to US universities, responsible
Speaker 1: for almost six billion dollars in giving so far. But
Speaker 1: the biggest brand building opportunity came in twenty ten when
Speaker 1: Qatar landed the bid to host the World Cup. I
Speaker 1: was actually just watching the video of the ceremony where
Speaker 1: they officially won the bid, and the royal family was
Speaker 1: there and they sprung up and were so excited. The
Speaker 1: winner to organize the two twenty two FIFA World Cup
Speaker 1: is Qatar. What was the significance of that moment for
Speaker 1: them and for Qatar? How big of a deal was
Speaker 1: it for the country.
Speaker 2: It was a huge deal. I mean many people when
Speaker 2: Qatar won the World Cup had never even heard of
Speaker 2: the nation. I mean, it's not even exaggeration. So this
Speaker 2: was a massive for them. Up until then, sort of
Speaker 2: their efforts to raise their profile had been hosting certain
Speaker 2: small diplomatic conventions and then now all of a sudden,
Speaker 2: they're hosting the biggest sporting event in the world by miles.
Speaker 2: And it was not without a significant amount of controversy.
Speaker 1: Qatar's growing prominence didn't come without a price. The country
Speaker 1: found itself at the center of major international scandals over
Speaker 1: human rights abuses, bribery, and its relationship with Iran. But
Speaker 1: the country navigated these and emerged stronger and more powerful
Speaker 1: than ever. Just how that happened and the influence it
Speaker 1: has today. After the break, we're back. We've been talking
Speaker 1: about the royal family of Qatar and their efforts to
Speaker 1: use their vast wealth to build influence. One prime example
Speaker 1: was their twenty ten World Cup bid. It was a
Speaker 1: major victory for Qatar, but it also came within increased scrutiny.
Speaker 1: As the country was constructing stadiums for the matches, media
Speaker 1: outlets began exposing some of Katar's troubling labor practices. Here's
Speaker 1: Bloomberg Wealth reporter Devin Pendleton.
Speaker 2: Again, it cast a light on the system of labor
Speaker 2: which are common in the Gulf, where you have guest
Speaker 2: workers come in from countries like Pakistan and Nepal and
Speaker 2: very very poor workers who could come over temporarily and
Speaker 2: often have their passports taken away while they're here to work,
Speaker 2: and of course and often just really grueling conditions and
Speaker 2: unbelievable heat. There were deaths, and you know, I think
Speaker 2: they made sort of lip service to improving that and
Speaker 2: were defensive about the system, but it really got a
Speaker 2: lot of attention for it, negative attention, I think for
Speaker 2: a lot of people. The hosting of the Games was
Speaker 2: seen as a human rights abomination.
Speaker 1: As these issues were coming to light, questions arose about
Speaker 1: how Qatar had secured the World Cup in the first place.
Speaker 2: There were also allegations left right and center of bribes
Speaker 2: being paid to win votes, and there was actually the
Speaker 2: US It did end up inditing three FIFA officials for
Speaker 2: taking money from Qatar.
Speaker 1: Bad press followed the country all the way up to
Speaker 1: the World Cup itself in twenty twenty two. In spite
Speaker 1: of everything, though, Qatar and the al Thani families still
Speaker 1: considered the event a success.
Speaker 2: If you ask members of the Althani's most anybody kind
Speaker 2: of who is close to Qatar, many people saw the
Speaker 2: World Cup is a massive win. It was a successful cup.
Speaker 2: It was a really exciting World Cup. It went off
Speaker 2: more or less without a hitch.
Speaker 1: This wasn't the only time Qatar would make it out
Speaker 1: of a tricky situation and come out on top. Back
Speaker 1: in twenty seventeen, in the lead up to the World Cup,
Speaker 1: the country came under fire from some of its most
Speaker 1: powerful neighbors. Its close relationship with Iran drew from Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Egypt,
Speaker 1: and the UAE. The Alliance applied some pretty serious pressure
Speaker 1: on Guitar.
Speaker 2: It was a move I think that a lot of
Speaker 2: people didn't see coming. The neighbors that encircle Guitar, led
Speaker 2: by Saudi Arabia formed an embargo against the country and
Speaker 2: they cut off all land and water crossings to the country,
Speaker 2: and it could have been devastating to Qatar, and I
Speaker 2: think a lot of people thought it would be devastating.
Speaker 2: They would have no choice but to capitulate, because otherwise
Speaker 2: their economy would wither up. But they did no such thing.
Speaker 2: I mean, they did went to extraordinary measures to kind
Speaker 2: of persist. Like probably the best examples that they the
Speaker 2: government got busy and they sent money to businesses which
Speaker 2: airlifted cows from all over the world so that they
Speaker 2: could have milk and all the dairy that they needed.
Speaker 1: Cows.
Speaker 2: It was cows. They were airlifting cows. They were flying
Speaker 2: in you know, huge jumbo jets of cows, and they
Speaker 2: you know, shored up their banking system, which of course
Speaker 2: was in a dire situation, and they just forged new
Speaker 2: they made new friends, and that's kind of got to
Speaker 2: the heart of what Katar does so well, is finding allies,
Speaker 2: forging partnerships. So they formed new trade routes with countries
Speaker 2: they didn't previously have trade partnerships, or they had weak
Speaker 2: partnerships like Aman and Iran and Turkey, it showed a
Speaker 2: real backbone. I think it showed like a real confidence
Speaker 2: in their belief that this is the best way to
Speaker 2: survive and thrive in this corner of the world. It's
Speaker 2: a very risky gambit to kind of seek out and
Speaker 2: speak to these different factions when you know that it's
Speaker 2: making powerful people unhappy.
Speaker 1: Qatar emerged from the embargoes stronger than before, and the
Speaker 1: world got a glimpse of just how effective the country
Speaker 1: was and making powerful and unlikely friends. Its role as
Speaker 1: a mediator is literally written into its constitution where it
Speaker 1: pledges to strengthen international peace and security by quote encouraging
Speaker 1: peaceful resolution of international disputes.
Speaker 2: It's really how the country views itself as a broker
Speaker 2: between different factions. They see kind of key to their
Speaker 2: security being a very small country in an area where
Speaker 2: there's a lot of hostility and conflict is being a broker,
Speaker 2: being the go to person who can kind of get
Speaker 2: different warring factions together in one room. And this has
Speaker 2: also worked in their favor because they have used it
Speaker 2: to harness a very powerful ally in the US, and
Speaker 2: the US knows that Qatar can be relied upon. Is
Speaker 2: they need to get a message to the Iranians, they
Speaker 2: can have Qatar deliver it, or if they need to
Speaker 2: get a message to the Taliban, and that is kind
Speaker 2: of why they are really crucial to the US.
Speaker 1: This seems like a really important moment to be looking
Speaker 1: at Qatar in this new role because of the important
Speaker 1: talks that they've hosted, you know, involving Russia, Iran, and
Speaker 1: the US, and these these negotiations with Hamas and Israel.
Speaker 1: Qatar also broke her to deal to bring aid and
Speaker 1: medicine into Gaza.
Speaker 2: It exemplifies I think how essential how important money is,
Speaker 2: because it's it's a really a fascinating approach that Qatar
Speaker 2: has taken with you know, not just using their money
Speaker 2: to become an influential investor by investing in Barclay's. It
Speaker 2: is just remarkable to me that this tiny, little country
Speaker 2: with a population smaller than Los Angeles is this well known,
Speaker 2: widespread and powerful.
Speaker 1: These are obviously high stakes negotiations for any country to
Speaker 1: be brokering, and given Qatar's human rights record, the allegations
Speaker 1: of corruption, and its friendliness with countries that have been
Speaker 1: blacklisted and sanctioned, I ask Devin about their role at
Speaker 1: the Center of peace negotiations.
Speaker 2: You know, obviously it's problematic, and it is a matter
Speaker 2: of sort of who. If not them, then who If
Speaker 2: the Qataris weren't playing this role, who would they be
Speaker 2: turning to? You know, if they can't speak directly to Iran,
Speaker 2: are they not going to speak at all? And then
Speaker 2: and what does that look like? A lot of major
Speaker 2: players in the world will tend to see things more
Speaker 2: black and white, like the US says we do not
Speaker 2: deal with Iran. Saudi Arabia generally does not like Iran.
Speaker 2: The UA has very particular views about who they talk to,
Speaker 2: who they don't, who is good, who is bad. Tar
Speaker 2: doesn't really have that view. They're more we will talk
Speaker 2: to anybody. We will talk to anybody, especially if you
Speaker 2: ask us to. If you need us to, we can
Speaker 2: go to them. And that is kind of what really
Speaker 2: makes them distinct is that they haven't written anybody off.
Speaker 2: They're saying, hey, you want to talk to this guy,
Speaker 2: I got his number, I can put you in touch.
Speaker 2: And you know, that's raised eyebrows, that's given them sort
Speaker 2: of maybe a reputation that's ticked off all sorts of people.
Speaker 2: But all of a sudden, when one of these countries,
Speaker 2: these big powerful countries, be it the US, the UK,
Speaker 2: Saudi Arabia. They need to talk to somebody. They have
Speaker 2: to go through the Kataris. That puts the Kataris in
Speaker 2: a really powerful position.
Speaker 1: As fighting escalates in the Middle East, Qatar's role has
Speaker 1: become more relevant than ever. Since October seventh, they've played
Speaker 1: a crucial role in negotiations between Hamas and Israel.
Speaker 2: They have been successful in helping over one hundred hostages
Speaker 2: be released, Israeli hostages and hostages from other nations.
Speaker 1: As Israel's warren Gaza wages on and its conflict with
Speaker 1: Iran unfolds, Qatar's role is continuing to evolve amid these
Speaker 1: heightened stakes. The country has come under increased political heat,
Speaker 1: and Katar's Prime minister has said it is reviewing its
Speaker 1: role as mediator between Hamas and Israel. For now, Katar's
Speaker 1: power continues to come from its long held position right
Speaker 1: in the middle. Thanks for listening to The Big Take
Speaker 1: podcast from Bloomberg News. I'm Sarah Holder. This episode was
Speaker 1: produced by Adriana Tapia and Alex Sugiura. It was edited
Speaker 1: by Stacy Vanicksmith and Christine Araum. It was mixed by
Speaker 1: Rishi Bajacol. It was fact checked by Thomas lu Naomi
Speaker 1: Shaven is our senior producer. Our senior editor is Elizabeth Ponso.
Speaker 1: Nicole bumsterbor is our executive producer. Sage Bauman is Bloomberg's
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