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Index to British press articles on the Fayeds' purchase of Harrods

This article, written by The Observer's financial journalist Michael Gillard, was based on Mohamed 'Al' Fayed's first interview following his acquisition by deception two days earlier of Tiny Rowland's 29.9 per cent stake in Harrods store group House of Fraser. 
    Embarrassingly for Gillard -- an otherwise painstaking journalist -- like Tiny Rowland he too was taken in by the Egyptian, for much of what he wrote, based on what Fayed had told him, is false.  It would be the last time that Gillard took Fayed at his word.
    Immediately following this article's publication other newspapers interviewed Fayed, during which the Egyptian embellished further his false tale about his family's wealth from cotton and shipping empires.

The Observer 
Sunday, 4 November 1984

For the man who has almost everything, including the most famous hotel name in the world, the lure of the most famous department store proved irresistible. 
    And that's why the new owners of the biggest share stake in House of Fraser, Egyptian multi-millionaire Mohamed Al-Fayed and his two brothers, say they have no intention of either bidding for the Harrods group or selling their near 30 per cent stake to someone who will. 
    'We bought the shares as an investment and now we intend to help the board to build the company up,' Mohamed Al-Fayed told The Observer at his luxury apartment office overlooking Hyde Park on Friday shortly after paying £138 million cash for the Fraser shares.  'The group is profitable enough to provide a good return which will increase.'
    'We would not want to see Harrods Americanised, Japanised or Germanised.  It is British, says this undisguised Anglophile, whose old established family has been doing business with Britain for more than a century.  They started shipping cotton from Egypt to Liverpool.  Today there are homes in Mayfair, a country estate in Surrey, and even a whisky distillery in Scotland. 
    But after paying such a high premium for the Lonrho stake Al-Fayed and his brothers Salah and Ali will not be content to be passive investors.  They have very definite ideas about how the Fraser stores in general and Harrods in particular can be made more profitable. 
    Pointing to their success in reviving the Ritz Hotel in Paris -- bought for $20 million in 1979, $50 million subsequently invested and now worth $100 million plus -- Mohamed Al-Fayed sees great untapped potential in marketing the Harrods name around the world.  One possibility could be to licence stores in New York, Paris, Rio de Janeiro or Tokyo.  Another is to merchandise goods under the Harrods label. 
    'Harrods is like the pyramids except there are several of those but only one of Harrods.  Everybody in the world has heard of it and wants to shop there.'
    That everybody has not heard of the Al-Fayed brothers is by choice.  Their family fortune in shipping, banking (they are the largest shareholders in one of the major Texas banks) and property could be worth at least £500 million.
    They only smile when asked to put a figure on it.  But they shun the ostentatious demonstration of wealth favoured by better known but less wealthy businessman from Saudi Arabia and the Gulf. 
    The best known member of the family is Mohamed Al-Fayed's son Dodi, who backed and produced the Oscar-winning 'Chariots of Fire' and more recently 'Greystoke.'
    Freed from the running battle with Lonrho the Fayeds believe that the Fraser directors under Professor Roland Smith ('He is an able man') can get on with running the business.  'They have been too involved with the guerrilla war.
    'We can help them because we have the marketing expertise as we have proved with the Ritz,' said Al-Fayed, who, with his youngest brother, Ali, will be joining the Fraser board.  'We expect that the directors will listen to us.'
    His view is that each Fraser store should be studied to see what can be done to boost profitability.  'If there are any dead ducks then they should be closed.'
    He is also confident that the Al-Fayed involvement will not spark a Lonrho-style reaction from the other Fraser directors.  The Professor, he said, had been 'very pleased' when informed of the purchase of the shares on Friday morning. 
    Mohamed Al-Fayed had raised the possibility of buying the Lonrho stake on several occasions in the past year with his near Park Lane neighbour, 'Tiny' Rowland.  They used to know each other well, as Al-Fayed was once a Lonrho director and major shareholder.
    Then on Thursday he spoke to the Lonrho chief who offered to sell.  'We did the deal without any contract, without any lawyers or bankers, just agreed the price and signed the cheque,' explained Al Fayed matter-of-factly. 
    The £138 million was produced in two days. 
    The Al-Fayed reputation in the City is high, not least because of his success in building up Costain into the largest contractor in the Gulf.  Contracts worth £1,000 million were obtained by Costain and also by Bernard Sunley [civil engineers].  The Al-Fayed interests acquired a 21 per cent stake in Costain in 1974. 
    After selling out to Lonrho, Mohammed Al-Fayed bought back the Costain stake in 1976 and placed it among institutional investors the following year. 
    He sees his track record with Costain and the Ritz as reasons why the Fraser directors should listen to him.  One thing they will be told right from the start is that is that he and his brothers are not fronting for anyone else.

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