DUBAI: Qatar Holding LLC is among a handful of investors that have put money into BlackBerry’s $1bn convertible debt offering, a source familiar with the financing plan said yesterday.
The Qatari sovereign wealth fund bought as much as $200m of the offering, in which Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd, BlackBerry Ltd’s largest shareholder, has itself put in $250 m.
The embattled smartphone maker abandoned plans on Monday to sell itself and replaced its chief executive, sparking a 16 percent drop in its share price. It said it would raise $1bn by issuing convertible notes to a small group of long-term investors, including Fairfax, which is run by investment guru Prem Watsa.
The source said the Qatari fund was attracted to invest in the offering because of the size of the coupon offered.
A spokesman for Qatar Holding declined to comment. Fairfax and BlackBerry declined to identify other investors in the debt offering.
In recent years, Qatar Holding, the investment arm of the Gulf state’s sovereign wealth fund, has emerged as one of the world’s most prolific investors. It has bought stakes in large blue-chip names such as oil giant Royal Dutch Shell, jewellery maker Tiffany & Co and Germany’s Siemens as it deploys the riches from country’s plentiful natural gas reserves.
