LONDON (AFP) - EGYPTIAN billionaire Mohamed Al Fayed has sold luxury London department store Harrods to Qatar Holding, the Gulf royal family's investment arm, Fayed's advisors Lazard said on Saturday.'The Al Fayed family trust, owners of Harrods, announce that they have today sold the Harrods Group to Qatar Holding,' Lazard said in a statement.
Media reports suggest Al Fayed, who also owns Fulham football club, sold the store for 1.5 billion pounds (S$3.08 billion).
Mr Al Fayed is retiring after 25 years as chairman of Harrods to spend more time with his children and grand-children and believed Qatar Holdings would continue to promote it as a luxury brand, the statement said.
His son Dodi was killed in the 1997 Paris car crash that killed Princess Diana, and he spent 10 years trying unsuccessfully to prove their death was not an accident. A shrine to the couple remains in Harrods.
Mr Al Fayed and his brothers bought a 30 per cent stake in the House of Fraser group, which owned Harrods at the time, in 1983, and a year later bought the remaining shares in a bitter multi-million-pound takeover battle. Since then Harrods, based in the exclusive Knightsbridge district of London, has maintained its position as one of the world's top department stores, favoured by celebrities and tourists alike. -- AFP
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