Dubai fund appoints Sony ex-CEO to advisory board

TOKYO Nov 29 (Reuters) - Dubai International Capital, a private equity company owned by the ruler of Dubai, said its Global Strategic Equities Fund has appointed Sony Corp's (6758.T) former Chief Executive Nobuyuki Idei to its advisory board.

Idei now is chairman of Sony's advisory board and chief executive of business consulting firm Quantum Leaps Corp.

The move comes on the heels of an announcement by Dubai International Capital on Monday that it has made a "substantial investment" in Sony.

The announcement helped Sony shares gain 15 percent so far this week, far outperforming the Nikkei average .N225, which rose 4 percent.

Quantum Leaps said on Thursday Idei had not heard of Dubai International Capital's purchase of a Sony stake before the deal was made public and he naturally has not given any advice on the matter.

The value of the deal was not available, but Dubai International Capital said in July it might buy into one or two publicly listed companies in Japan and each transaction would be worth up to $1.5 billion.

A $1.5 billion investment would be equivalent of a 3 percent stake in Sony, maker of PlayStation game machines, Cyber-shot digital cameras and Vaio personal computers.

Besides Idei, Helmut Panke, former chief executive of BMW (BMWG.DE) and GlaxoSmithKline (GSK.L) Chief Executive Jean-Pierre Garnier were appointed to the advisory board.

Garnier, who will work as GlaxoSmithKline's chief executive until the end of May 2008, will be joining the board in 2008, Dubai International Capital said in a statement, without giving a specific date. ($1=110.11 Yen)

(Reporting by Kiyoshi Takenaka; Editing by Andrew Callus)