Qatar Holding LLC has become the fifth owner of Harrods since its establishment in 1849. Back in March and amid speculation of a potential sale of Harrods, Mr. Al Fayed repeatedly insisted that the London landmark “is not for sale and is not being sold.”
Well, I can think of 1.5 billion reasons why Mohamed Al-Fayed would sell the store, and retirement is certainly one of them. Today it became all official: Mohamed Al-Fayed announced the sale of Harrods Ltd. to Qatar Holding LLC, the investment arm of the Qatar Investment Authority, for £1.5 billion ($2.2 billion). After owning and managing the department store for more than 25 years and turning it into a unique luxury brand, he decided it was time to retire. “I’ve been working for the past 50 years of my life, 25 of them in Harrods, and I wanted to be able to spend more time with my family, especially my four grandchildren.” He added: “I’m 77 now and I wanted to be able to walk out of Harrods not be taken out in a wheelchair!”
The Egyptian businessman has sold the store for nearly triple the £615 million he paid in 1985. Amongst more Al-Fayed’s interesting ownerships are the English Premiership football team Fulham Football Club and the Hôtel Ritz in Paris.
Mr. Al Fayed firmly believes that Qatar Holding LLC has both the vision and financial capacity to support the long-term growth of the department store. Qatar Holding surely has the financially capacity, with the never ending natural gas and the ever-growing portfolio of investments. Qatar is the largest shareholder in Songbird Estates Plc, which controls more than half the buildings in the Canary Wharf estate in London, J Sainsbury Plc, and Barclays Plc. It’s also the second-largest shareholder in London Stock Exchange Group Plc and has a stake in Volkswagen AG, the German automaker.
Finance expert Justin Urquhart-Stewart says “The Qatari group have been buying a lot of property in Knightsbridge recently so they probably see it as nice to have a grocery store down the road.” I just hope the legacy he has built in Harrods would continue and grow as he envisions..
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Loading ...Tags: Harrods, Mohamed Al Fayed, Qatar, Qatar Holding LLC, Qatar Investment Authority
Qatar is taking over London. That Barclays investment as phenomenal (perhaps lucky too).
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Sal Reply:
May 9th, 2010 at 9:13 am
Dubai.. Now Qatar.. whos next? Certainly not Kuwait
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i hope it doesnt change too much, i like it the way it is !
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Sal Reply:
May 9th, 2010 at 1:02 pm
Hopefully not, we all know Qatari’s have a unique taste in clothing
Mr. Al Fayed is now an Honorary Chairman of Harrods. Qatar Holding LLC has announced that they intend on working with Michael Ward, Harrods’ Managing Director, and his management team to continue on maintaining Harrods legacy.
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