Qatar fund may buy Sainsbury stake

QATAR’S €30 billion investment fund is seeking a strategic stake in Sainsbury’s and is studying exactly how much of the British retailer it wants to buy, the emirate’s foreign minister said.

“We think they’re doing well, and this is part of what makes us interested,” Sheikh Hamad bin Jasim bin Jaber al-Thani, who is also chief executive officer of the state-owned Qatar Investment Authority, said in Doha late yesterday.

Blackstone Group, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co and CVC Capital Partners said they’re considering an offer for Sainsbury, Britain’s third-biggest supermarket chain, in what would be Europe’s biggest leveraged buyout. Sainsbury shares have climbed 13% since then, giving the London-based company a value of £8.7bn (€13bn).