Retail shareholders

Last on the list of OPM are the individuals who invest their own money on Wall Street. Rarely do they play a significant role in company financing, since their individual investments are too small to permit efficient fund raising. The only biotech companies where retail investors represent a majority of shareholders are those that have been abandoned by institutional investors, i.e., the road kill. 

However, a growing number of responsible retailers are now aspiring to being truly sustainable where the activities of the retailer deliver benefits to their shareholders and their customers and create natural and social capital. To do this the market has to evolve, and the retailing business model has to be radically changed. The current business model is based on the linear transactions in which consumption and growth are intrinsically coupled with environmental and social harm this has to be replaced, and a small number of retailers are now exploring what the new business model could look like. 

Pearl Qatar is one of the major projects in the GCC (Fig. 47.6). The total area of this artificial island is 4 million m (43 million ft ). The total estimated cost is USD 5 billion. This development will accommodate 40, 000 residents. The project will include three 5 star luxury hotels with the total room capacity of 800, four marinas and multiple retail spaces. This development has buildings ranging from high-rise towers to 4-storey buildings villas. The project is under construction and is estimated to be completed by 2011. United Development Company (UDC), which is country s largest private sector shareholding company, is developing this project. 

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