The issue will have five- and 10-year maturities and come through a syndicate of local and international banks, including HSBC, Barclays Capital, Standard Chartered and QNB Capital, the investment banking unit of Qatar National Bank, the source said.
However, QNB comments were not available at the time of going to press.
Qatar, the world’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas, is ensuring its key property firms weather the global crisis, which has hit nearby Dubai hard, by pushing through defensive mergers and using Diar to invest in them.
Diar holds a 45% stake in Barwa Real Estate company, the sixth-largest developer in the Gulf Arab region by market value, which is taking over rival Alaqaria in a government-ordered deal.
Barwa also plans to sell assets through 2010 and 2011 to meet its obligations.
Qatar has said it will keep spending to maintain domestic growth momentum as well as acquiring overseas assets, Reuters said.
Qatar, which is eyeing a $ 100bn budget for new projects over the next four years, issued QR10bn ($ 2.75bn) worth of eight-year conventional and Islamic bonds to local banks earlier in June.
Recently, HE the Minister of Finance Yousef Hussein Kamal said Qatar may spend around $ 100bn within the next four years on different projects.
Kamal said the government planned to spend more than $ 40bn on various infrastructure projects, while another $ 60bn would come from government agencies or the state-owned firms such as Qatar Petroleum.
“The main projects are roads, sewage treatment, water treatment and infrastructure like ports and airports,” he told reporters on the sidelines of a Turkish-Arab economic forum in Istanbul.
