Qatar buys stake in Empire State Building

Doha: Qatar's sovereign wealth fund has bought an almost 10 percent stake in the company that owns New York's iconic Empire State Building.

"Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) has acquired $622 million in shares in the Empire State Realty Trust," the official QNA news agency reported on Wednesday. The investment equates to a 9.9 percent stake in the trust.

The company owns nine office properties in midtown Manhattan, including the Empire State Building.  The multi-billion-dollar QIA was set up in 2005 to manage Qatar's huge surpluses from sales of gas and oil.

The Empire State acquisition comes almost a year after Qatar's ambassador to the US, Mohammed Al-Kuwari, tweeted that his country would invest $35 billion in the US economy over the next five years.