junkyard dog

Qatar Airways buys the bankrupt Entertainment facility , the so called Aladin's Kingdom in Qatar ...the agreement was signed yesterday.

The previous managment of this entertainment company estimate there losses at 3Million US ...

Qatar Airways has agreed to cover up the losses and also buy each share from the sharholders at 12 QR aprox. 3.50 $ ,
the share value at this time in the Qatari market is 8.5 QR around 2.25 $ ....

What sort of project does QR have in mind .... what do they want to do with this deserted facility that seldom people visit????

A300Man

This is another case of taking one's eye off the ball. QR is a growing airline concern - purchases such as Aladdin's Kingdom are stupid and non-core.

AAB should concentrate on getting the carrier into a fit shape, rather than dabbling in this peripheral and illogical nonsense.

Come on shareholders - wake up and see what the hell is going on there!

HF-in-Doha

A300man,

The purchase a long with the others such as the catering, airport and hotels are aimed at two things:

1- Making Qatar Airways more attractive when the IPO comes. Becoming more of a Travel and Leisure Conglomerate rather than an airline.

2- Having an intergrated body to develop the local tourism industry faster. Look at Dubai for instance.

From what I have heard this is all coming from higher than AAB. IIRC one the main priorities of the business plan is to increase value of the company.

"What sort of project does QR have in mind .... what do they want to do with this deserted facility that seldom people visit????"

There were plans to convert this facility to a water park which would make more sense with the weather. If I was the one that bought the facility I would probably convert it to a residential project. After the Asian Games the west bay area will be the place to be with the cultural village, global park, west bay island, the shopping malls and the high rise business district.

A300Man

I agree with this mode of thinking in the general business sense, HF. However, such purchases would normally be made by an organistaion which itself has established itself on a good solid foundation (simple business school learning).

Qatar Airways may well be on the way to achieving this (who knows), but unfortunately, 90% of reality is influenced by perception.

In other words, QR should appear to get it's own foundation house in order (the airline business), and when it is proven that it can do that (airline) well, start to build on top of it by diversifying into other areas, synergistic or otherwise.

At the present time, the impression being gained by the outside world is that QR is growing too quickly - like trying to jack a car on a beach - without a strong foundation, the whole things gonna give way!

There's no smoke without fire, as the saying goes!