Founded in 2005, QIA eschews investment into the energy sector, instead preferring to concentrate on public and private equity, real estate, alternative assets, and fund investments.

It has been a mixed 12 months for QIA. Assets, which peaked at about $75bn in June 2008, dropped to about $50bn at the end of March, according to estimates by RGE Monitor in New York, which researches sovereign funds. The losses stemmed in part from the performance of Credit Suisse Group, Switzerland’s number two bank, which has lost 20 percent of its value since February 2008, when QIA said it was first buying shares.

Stock has dropped about half a percent since October 2008, when QIA added more.However this hit has been somewhat offset by the performance of Barclay’s.

Last year QIA boosted its 6.4 percent stake in the UK’s third-largest bank to as much as 12.7 percent, propping it up after it had rejected money from Prime Minister Gordon Brown. Since then, Barclays stock has jumped some 40 percent. The QIA’s original stake, purchased in July 2008, had tumbled as much as 82 percent by January; it is now up 1.8 percent.

With its investments across the US, Europe, Qatar and Asia, QIA has continued to hit the headlines this year.

Last month it was reported that the fund was looking to buy Stocznia Gdynia, a Polish shipyard famous for the deaths of around 20 workers during protests in 1970.

In the first quarter 2009, QIA reported net profit of QR 350m ($96m) that derived mainly from growth in income of operating activities.