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Gulf Arab Foreign Acquisitions in 2007 | ASHARQ AL-AWSAT English Archive 2005 -2017
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(Reuters) – Oil-rich Gulf Arab state Qatar has made a bid approach for J Sainsbury Plc , which newspapers said valued the supermarket group at about 12 billion pounds ($24.5 billion), including debt.

Following is a chronology of some of the largest purchases of the past six months:

* February – An affiliate of Saudi Arabia’s National Industrialisation Co., partly owned by Prince Alwaleed, agrees to buy the titanium dioxide pigment business of Lyondell Chemical Co. for $1.2 billion.

* March – Qatar Telecommunications Co. agrees to pay $3.72 billion for a 51 percent stake in Kuwait’s National Mobile Telecommunications Co., which operates in Iraq, Tunisia, Saudi Arabia, Algeria and the Maldives.

* March – Kuwait’s Investment Dar is part of a consortium that buys British luxury car maker Aston Martin from Ford Motor Co. in a deal worth 479 million pounds ($965.3 million).

* April – A regulatory filing shows Saudi Arabian investor Maan al-Sanea has bought about 3.3 billion pounds’ worth of shares in HSBC Holdings Plc, starting in mid-February.

* April – Emirates International Investment Company, owned by the ruling family of Abu Dhabi, says it has bought just over 3 percent of French media and telecoms group Vivendi for about 1.1 billion euros ($1.50 billion).

* May – Dubai International Capital (DIC) says it has bought a “substantial” stake in HSBC Holdings Plc for a fund it manages, making the fund one of the largest investors in Europe’s biggest bank.

* May – Saudi Basic Industries Corp. (2010.SE: Quote, Profile, Research) agreed to pay $11.6 billion in cash for General Electric Co.’s plastics business in the largest foreign acquisition ever announced by a Gulf Arab investor.

* May – Dubai says it has bought a 2.2 percent stake in Deutsche Bank AG through DIFC Investments, an arm of the Dubai International Financial Centre, becoming the fifth-largest shareholder in Germany’s biggest listed bank. The stake would be worth around 1.35 billion euros.

* June – Saudi Telecom Co., the largest Arab telecom firm, is to buy 25 percent of Malaysia’s Maxis in a $3 billion deal to gain access to Indonesia and India, and complete southeast Asia’s biggest buyout.

* June – A consortium led by Kuwait’s Mobile Telecommunications Co. wins Saudi Arabia’s third mobile licence with a $6.11 billion bid announced three months earlier.

* June – Delta Two, a fund owned by Qatar’s ruling family, raises its stake in British supermarket group J. Sainsbury Plc to 25 percent with a 732 million pound purchase that fuels speculation of a takeover bid.

* July – DIC, which manages the $2 billion Global Strategic Equities Fund, says it has bought a 3.12 percent stake in Airbus parent EADS, .The stake is worth 614 million euros at Wednesday’s closing price.

* July – Saudi Arabia’s National Commercial Bank, the Gulf’s largest lender by assets, makes its first foreign acquisition, in Turkey. The bank has bought a 60 percent stake in Islamic lender Turkiye Finans for $1.08 billion.

* July – Delta Two, which already owns about 25 percent of J Sainsbury Plc, makes a bid approach for Britain’s third-biggest supermarket group which newspapers said valued it at about 12 billion pounds ($24.5 billion), including debt.