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The Ritz is pictured above. The Grade II listed hotel has a casino and the famous Palm Court tea room, while suites cost up to £5,450 a night. (AFP/File)
Highlights
World-renowned Ritz hotel in London is sold to a Qatari investor for £700million
London’s world-renowned Ritz hotel has been sold to a Qatari investor for £700 million, ending more than a century of British ownership – and fuelling a family feud between its billionaire owners.
The buyer’s identity is being kept private while The Ritz is in lockdown, but it is understood that Sheikh Hamad Bin-Jaber al-Thani – Qatar’s former prime minister and a business associate of the hotel’s owners, Sir Frederick and Sir David Barclay – was a bidder in the closing stages of the auction.
Sheikh Hamad, 60, was dubbed ‘the man who bought London’ while the head of Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund between 2007 and 2013, snapping up trophy assets such as Harrods and The Shard.
The sheikh bought a Belgravia mansion from Sir Frederick and Sir David for an estimated £150 million in 2016.
The previous year, he bought a controlling stake in the Maybourne hotel group that owns London’s Claridge’s, Berkeley and Connaught from the twins.