news biTes
Qh ACQUireS
5% oF bANCo SANtANDer Qatar Holding (QH) announced the acquisition of a 5% stake in Banco Santander (Brasil) S.A. through an agreement to purchase $2.7 billion (QR9.83 billion) of mandatorily exchangeable bonds to be issued by Banco Santander S.A. The three-year bonds pay an annual coupon of 6.75% and are exchangeable into Santander Brasil units at a reference price of BRL23.75 per unit. Closing of the transaction is expected to take place by the end of October 2010. Upon completion of the transaction, Qatar Holding is now a key shareholder in major financial institutions around the world, from China to Europe and now Brazil. Commenting on the transaction, HE
Sheikh Hamad Bin Jassim Bin Jabr AlThani, Prime Minister and Chairman of QH, said: “We are happy to announce our new investment in Santander Brasil. This reflects our commitment to strengthen bilateral ties and economic cooperation with an important growing economy." QH, Vice Chairman, Dr Hussain Ali Al-Abdulla added: “This acquisition accomplishes our objective of increasing our exposure to fast growing emerging markets like Brazil, after our earlier investment in China. This will further diversify our portfolio’s geographical coverage, this time to Latin America.” Barclays Capital is acting as exclusive financial adviser to QH.
tALeNt CoNFereNCe FoCUSeS Not jUSt oN NUmberS ‘Managing nationalisation successfully amidst turbulent times’ was the focus of a recent conference on Local Talent. The event was organised by Fleminggulf.com and brought together an expert panel of speakers from the region. Adnan Al-Banna, Senior ManagerCorporate Planning at Qatar Airways discussed the current situation of nationalisation in the GCC. He said taking the six Gulf countries with a total workforce of 40 million, nationals does not exceed 45% of the total, while expatriates working are approximately 55%. He said that Saudi Arabia, Oman and Bahrain have managed their local talent fairly well, with the percentage of nationals close to 70.
In Kuwait the percentage of working nationals to the total population was 42%, while in UAE it was 17% and in Qatar it was 14%. This is not an ideal situation; he said and called for integration of nationals and expatriates. He also called on nationals to raise their expectations and look out for mentors. David Jones, Senior Leader of Aon Hewitt spoke about an ongoing survey called Qudara that focused on the habits of the workforce in the region. According to the survey, GCC nationals show a greater tolerance towards working in a multi-cultural environment than the other Arab nationals and expatriate workforce. Oryx Advertising Company was the media partner of this conference.
73% Saudi Arabia
In Numbers
42% Kuwait
12
QT-Nov.indd 12
70% Oman
eDUCAte QAtAr LAUNCheD
Sheikh Faisal Bin Qassim Al-Thani announced the launch of Ò Educate Qatar,Ó an education centre, based in Doha, Ò to enhance the overall standard of educational facilities throughout Qatar.Ó
e
ducate Qatar is a new subsidiary of Allied International Holding specialising in education and training. The organisation has a portfolio of educational products and programmes licensed from many of the world’s leading academic and corporate services and solutions brands to support the existing education system in place in Qatar. Educate Qatar, provides after school in-centre and online tutoring programmes for Qatari grade school, middle school, and high school students licensing Carnegie Learning® and Cognitive Tutor® software for its learning programmes.
62% Bahrain
17%
14%
UAE Qatar (percentage of working nationals to the total population)
Qatar Today November 10
11/1/10 7:20:35 PM