The hottest investments made by Gulf Arabs

Olympics Village

East Village is a district of Stratford in East London, which was constructed as part of the 2012 Summer Olympics. Designed and built as the Olympic Village, after the games it will be converted into the new district of East Village. ‘London E20’ will be a new neighbourhood and will initially deliver 2,818 new homes when it will be ready for residents to move into in 2013. Qatari Diar, the gas-rich state's investment arm, and UK property developer Delancey Estates teamed up to buy the athletes' village for £557m ($872.5m).

(REUTERS/Jae C. Hong/Pool/Files)

Aston Martin

You might have seen James Bond driving the iconic Aston Martin luxury car. But do you know who owns the vehicle-manufacturing company? In 2007, Aston Martin was purchased for £479m ($750m) by a joint venture company, headed by David Richards, John Singers, an American investment banker; and two Kuwaiti investment companies, Investment Dar and Adeem Investment.

(Photo by Matt Cardy/Getty Images)

Italian fashion house Valentino was snapped up by the Qatari royal family for 700 million euros ($857.5m) last month. (AFP PHOTO MAXIMILIEN LAMY)

Chelsea Barracks was a British Army barracks located in the City of Westminster, London. The barracks is in one of London's most expensive residential areas. In April 2007 the Ministry of Defence agreed to sell Chelsea Barracks in its 12.8 acres (5.2 ha) site for £959 million to a consortium consisting of Qatari Diar and the CPC Group. (Getty Images)

The oil rich emirate of Abu Dhabi holds a 9 percent stake and is the largest investor in the German automotive group, Daimler. (Photo by Thomas Niedermueller/Getty Images)

Canary Wharf is a major business district and is one of London's two main financial centres – alongside the traditional City of London. Qatar owns many properties of the Canary Wharf financial district through its majority holding in Songbird Estates plc. (AFP PHOTO / ANDREW COWIE)

In 2010, the Qatari royal family's investment company bought the iconic London department store Harrods for a reported £1.5bn ($2.3bn). (AFP PHOTO CARL COURT)

The Shard or Shard London Bridge (formerly known as London Bridge Tower or the Shard of Glass) is a skyscraper in Southwark, London. In late 2007, the gathering uncertainty in the global financial markets sparked concerns about getting the Shard's construction started. The project was almost cancelled, but in January 2008, it was announced that a consortium of Qatari investors had paid £150 million to secure an 80% stake and take control of the project. (Photo by Jesse Toksvig-Stewart/Getty Images)

Abu Dhabi state-backed investment firm Aabar Investments acquired a 32 percent stake in Richard Branson’s Virgin Galactic three years ago. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

Saudi Arabian business tycoon and investor Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal owns about 6 percent ownership of Citigroup.Alwaleed also owns about seven percent ownership of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

In January 2005, Alwaleed purchased the Savoy Hotel in London for an estimated GBP £250 million, to be managed by Fairmont Hotels and Resorts. (AFP PHOTO Adrian DENNIS)

Prince Alwaleed also owns the iconic George V hotel in Paris. Alwaleed also holds stake in New York’s Plaza Hotel. (AFP PHOTO / PIERRE VERDY)

Prince Alwaleed has also made large investments in AOL, Apple Inc., MCI Inc., Motorola, Fox News and other technology and media companies. His real estate holdings have included large stakes in the Four Seasons hotel chain and the Plaza Hotel in New York. He also holds a stake in Euro Disney SCA, the company that owns, manages and maintains Disneyland Paris in Marne-la-Vallee. (REUTERS/Aly Song)

Qatar also owns 6.8 percent of UK-based Barclays bank. The bank has been in news lately: in June 2012, as a result of an international investigation, Barclays Bank was fined a total of £290 million (US$450 million) for attempting to manipulate the daily settings of London Interbank Offered Rate (Libor) and the Euro Interbank Offered Rate (Euribor). (Photo by Oli Scarff/Getty Images)

One Hyde Park is a major residential and retail complex located in London. The building is owned by Project Grande (Guernsey) Limited, a joint venture between the Christian Candy-owned CPC Group and Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jaber Al Thani, the Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of Qatar. (Getty Images)

In August 2008, Manchester City Football Club was purchased by Abu Dhabi United Group, resulting in the club becoming one of the richest in world football. In 2011, Manchester City qualified for the Champions League and won the FA Cup. In 2012, the club won the Premier League, their first league title for forty-four years. (Photo by David Rogers/Getty Images)

Madrid-based club Getafe was bought by Dubai-based Royal Emirates Group for around 70-90m Euros. (AFP PHOTO/KARIM SAHIB)

Speaking of football-club ownerships, Qatar Investment Authority became the sole shareholder of football club Paris Saint-Germain after purchasing the remaining 30% stake held by Colony Capital and Butler Capital Partners in 2012. QIA had already bought 70% of Colony's controlling stake in PSG during 2011. Paris Saint-Germain is a professional association football club based in Paris, France. Qatari Sheik Abdullah bin Nasser Al-Thani Spanish Primera Liga outfit Malaga for a reported €25 million fee. (REUTERS/Charles Platiau)

Qatar also owns 26% of J Sainsbury the parent company of Sainsbury's Supermarkets Ltd, commonly known as Sainsbury's, the third largest chain of supermarkets in the United Kingdom and a big chunk in the London Stock Exchange. (AFP PHOTO/BEN STANSALL)