Qataris target another landmark asset as their super-broker Amanda Staveley pockets £5m
The Qatari ruling family are poised to add to their already bulging portfolio of trophy London assets with a bid for a third ownership of the Savoy.
The Qatar Investment Authority, which owns Harrods, the US Embassy Building in Mayfair and Chelsea Barracks, as well as big stakes in Barclays, Sainsbury's and the London Stock Exchange, is understood to be in talks about an offer for the Grosvenor House hotel.
The move comes as Amanda Staveley, deal broker to the Arabs and ex-girlfriend of Prince Andrew, pocketed a multi-million-pound windfall for orchestrating yet another Qatari purchase of a prime West End development site.
The former model advised Qatari property investment company Barwa to buy the Park House site in Oxford Street from Land Securities for
£250 million.
It is thought the deal earned the
37-year-old and her Mayfair advisory firm PCP Capital Partners in the region of £5 million to £7.5 million in fees.
The discussions on the Savoy are said to involve Qatari Diar, the QIA's property investment arm, taking a stake in the Savoy of up to 33 per cent, with the two current joint owners, Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal and HBOS, trimming their holdings.
The 120-year-old Strand landmark has been shut since December 2007 for a major refurbishment that was originally supposed to cost
£100 million but has overrun horribly and is now expected to cost more than £200 million.
The hotel is scheduled to reopen in the autumn.
A deal would give the Qataris an even bigger presence in a city now dubbed Lon-doha because of the vast sums of money being invested by the tiny emirate.
The Qataris have been taking advantage of the weakness of sterling to buy up what they see as undervalued assets with revenue from their vast gas reserves.
They will be the world's biggest overseas property investors this year.
It is not clear how much Qatari Diar would have to pay for a third share since the hotel — and the adjoining Simpson's-in-the-Strand restaurant — carries a big debt burden.
In its 2008 accounts the Savoy had debt loans of £212 million, although that figure is likely to have risen.
Qatar Holdings, another part of the QIA empire, is believed to be one of six bidders short-listed for the Grosvenor House hotel, which has been put up for sale by the Royal Bank of Scotland.
Other bidders in the fray for the Park Lane institution include a sovereign wealth fund from Abu Dhabi and Singapore.
