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(Continued from overleaf)
'The Hero from Zero' explodes what little credibility, if any, is left in Mohamed Fayed's account of his origins: the subject of exhaustive inquiries by The Observer whose findings were essentially mirrored in Channel 4's recent screening of 'The Harrods Sale'.
Immortal
Lonrho (surprise, surprise) is highly critical of Kleinwort Benson's role, focusing on John MacArthur's immortal claim that the Fayeds' net worth at the time of the House of Fraser takeover bid was 'several billion dollars'.
In Lonrho's words: 'The only assets referred to by Kleinwort Benson with precision were a property lease in New York (since seen to be of indeterminate value), the heavily mortgaged Ritz Hotel in Paris, a block of flats in London and a castle in Scotland. These are not indicia of wealth on the suggested scale; indeed, reference to such insignificant assets is a positive indication that such wealth does not exist.'
Much of this is now accepted wisdom: witness the editorial revisionism currently under way at the Sunday Times which, last month, blandly declared: 'Last week Al-Fayed accepted that some of the claims made in 1984 about his family's wealth were the product of an over-enthusiastic public-relations executive.'
New light is, however, thrown on Fayed's background in a chapter entitled 'Moving on: Haiti and Dubai'. Of particular interest is an article recently printed in Le Matin where Fayed is remembered as follows:
'In approximately August 1964, he landed in Port-au-Prince, and presented himself, with impunity, as Sheikh Mohamed Fayed of Kuwait, a minuscule Gulf state bursting with petro-dollars, and stated that he was the intimate friend of the Emir Atta El Sabat of Kuwait who had given him the task of making his millions bear fruit.'
Le Matin's version of Fayed's business adventures, almost as controversial as the House of Fraser affair, are duly chronicled and the article continues:
'Under pressure from Mr Rowland, the Iron Lady's Government has had to open an inquiry into Fayed. We can already imagine the Prime Minister's worries on reading Forbes magazine, the fear which wrings her heart that she had invited to her table in 10 Downing Street, her official residence, this pirate and rogue who had climbed so far in English high society so that he could even consort with the heir to the throne and his wife.'
The article concludes: 'With calmness and serenity we await the result of the investigations into Fayed.'
As do we all.
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