Qatar adds US embassy site to Paris property splurge

Qatar has bought a property in Paris housing a section of the US embassy, Le Parisien daily said Saturday, a day after an investor from the gas-rich emirate snapped up four luxury hotels in France. "The emirate has just bought the Neo building with 23,000 square metres at 14 boulevard Haussmann in the centre of Paris for 300 million euros ($367 million)," reported the paper. As well as a section of the US embassy, the exclusive address also houses the offices of right-leaning national newspaper Le Figaro. On Friday, a Qatari investor bought four properties from the Starwood Hotel Group, including the famed Martinez in Cannes and the Hotel du Louvre in Paris, for a reported sum of between 700 and 750 million euros ($880 -940 million). France has proved attractive to Qatari investors who in recent months have bought Paris Saint-Germain football club and acquired three percent of energy giant Total as well as stakes in building firm Vinci (5.6 percent) and in media group Lagardere (10.1 percent). A 50-million-euro project to invest in some of Paris' poorer suburbs, due to be financed by Qatar, has been abandoned in favour of investment in small to medium sized businesses, Le Parisien reported on Saturday.