Qatar Holding is the company everybody wants to do business with. As the investment arm of the Qatar Investment Authority, is it set to splash $32 billion in 2010 across the globe. And if you want to do business with Qatar Holding, meet Anthony Armstrong. The man with the purse strings only came on board in April this year, having previously been in charge of Credit Suisse's mergers and acquisitions division for the Middle East and North Africa. Armstrong was previously a managing director of Credit SuisseCredit Suisse in the Americas M&A group, based in Los Angeles.

Armstrong has already made his mark in his new role, leading the team that completed the purchase of Harrods earlier this year.

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.

And in the five years since its inception, the SWF has amassed a portfolio of global assets worth some $75bn. These include a string of high-profile assets in London and a host of household names across Europe, which Qatar either owns outright, or in which it holds a significant stake.

This year alone, QIA has bid $275m for the historic Raffles Hotel in Singapore, spent $2.3bn on famed London department store Harrods, established a $1bn Indonesian fund to invest in infrastructure and natural resources, and closed a $370m deal for the Park Place development on London's Oxford Street.

Adding these assets to a portfolio which already included stakes in J Sainsbury, Volkswagen, Porsche, Credit Suisse and Barclays, Qatar has ensured that the revenues derived from the world's third-largest reserves of natural gas, have been reinvested across a wide range of sectors and geographies.