It was interesting to read this week that Mohamed Fayed (we'll come onto the "Al" issue) sold the Harrods department store for a reported £1.5bn. For it was in 1985 that the Fayed Brothers (Mohamed, Ali and Salah) bought the remaining shares in the House of Fraser Group, that included the prestigious Harrods department store in London for £615m. The sale this week brings to an end of sorts an amazing story.
The deal to buy Harrods goes back to 1984 when Fayed bought 29.9% of the shares in House of Frazer from wealthy entrepreneur "Tiny" Rowland. It has been reported that the money to buy the shares was part of $1bn of funds that Fayed had managed to squirrel away from the Sultan of Brunei whilst he was his financial advisor. Even more amazing is the allegation by Rowland that he had been duped into selling the shares after Fayed offered to buy them to allow Rowland to deal with a government inquiry into his company Lonhro. It apparently took Rowland only 9 hours to realise, on selling the shares, he was never going to get them back and his own plan to buy Harrods was in tatterss.
Mohamed Fayed was born in Egypt in 1929. He became a British citizen in 1974, adding "Al" to his name. Time does not allow a full explanation of the many, many stories surrounding Mohamed since 1985, but any life that includes,
1. Losing a son in the same car crash as princess Diana
2. Being sued by the British Government over his business dealings
3. Buying a football club
4. Having the British Tax man welch on a side deal they had to collect a nominal fixed tax amount from him.
must make for an amazing future movie.
Make this happen!!
