What does Mohamed Al Fayed own? Who owned Harrods and Fulham?

What does Mohamed Al Fayed own? Who owned Harrods and Fulham? – Mohamed Al-Fayed was an Egyptian businessman whose chief business interests were in the United Kingdom from the mid-1960s and included ownership of the Harrods department store, Fulham Football Club, and Hôtel Ritz Paris. He was born on 27 January 1929 and died on 30 August 2023 at age 94.

Al-Fayed bought Fulham F.C. for £6.25 million in 1997 and the sale was facilitated through Bill Muddyman’s Muddyman Group. In July 2013, after 16 years of ownership, Al-Fayed sold the club to Pakistani-American businessman Shahid Khan, who owns the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars.

Al-Fayed’s legacy as Fulham owner

In 2001, Fulham won the First Division (now Football League Championship) under manager Jean Tigana, winning 101 points and scoring 90 goals in the 2000/2001 season.

By 2002, Fulham was competing in European football, winning the Intertoto Cup and challenging in the UEFA Cup. Fulham reached the final of the 2009–10 UEFA Europa League and continued to play in the Premier League throughout Al-Fayed’s tenure as owner, which ended in 2013.

Al Fayed and Harrods

Roland ‘Tiny’ Rowland, the head of Lonrho, sold Al-Fayed and his brothers a 30% ownership stake in House of Fraser, a company that included the London shop Harrods, in 1984. In 1985, Al-Fayed and his brothers paid £615 million for the remaining 70% of House of Fraser.

After denials that Harrods was for sale, it was sold on May 10, 2010, to Qatar Holdings, Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund. A fortnight previously, Fayed had stated that “People approach us from Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Qatar. Fair enough. But I put two fingers up to them. It is not for sale. This is not Marks and Spencer or Sainsbury’s. It is a special place that gives people pleasure. There is only one Mecca.”

Harrods was sold for £1.5 billion with Fayed later revealing in an interview that he decided to sell Harrods following the difficulty in getting his dividend approved by the trustee of the Harrods pension fund.

Source: abtc.ng