On December 6th Qatar Holding, a unit of the sovereign wealth fund, the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA), signed a deal with Hochtief to buy a 9.1% stake in the German construction giant. The deal is to be completed through the purchase of 7m new shares at EUR57.114 (US$75) each, costing a total of EUR399.8m (US$530m). As part of the deal, Hochtief will locate its Middle East headquarters in Doha, train local staff and run a research and development facility. Qatar's prime minister and foreign minister, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassem, who is also the chairman of the QIA, said that the deal was key to developing infrastructure for the 2022 football World Cup, which is to be hosted by Qatar. Hochtief is already involved in several large-scale infrastructure projects in the country, including the metropolitan railway and the Qatar-Bahrain causeway. The deal was believed to have been facilitated by the office of the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, who had expressed disapproval of a planned hostile takeover of Germany's largest builder by its Spanish rival, Actividades de Construction y Servicio (ACS). The Qatar Holding deal increases Hochtief's capital, and will dilute ACS's stake in the company to about 27% from 29.9%, making it more difficult for the latter to increase its holding beyond 50% and take control of the company. Qatar also has a 17% stake in two German carmakers, Volkswagen and Porsche.

On December 17th the Qatari finance minister, Youssef Hussein Kamal, announced that the country was keen to invest more in European information technology and SMEs.