Mohamed Al-Fayed (Arabic: محمد أنور شاكر عبد السيد الفايد; born 27 January 1929) is an Egyptian business magnate. Fayed’s business interests include ownership of Hôtel Ritz Paris and formerly Harrods Department Store, Knightsbridge. Al-Fayed sold his ownership of Fulham F.C. to Shahid Khan in 2013.
Fayed has four siblings: Ali, Salah, Soaad and Safia. Fayed’s eldest son, Dodi, from his first marriage to Samira Khashoggi, died in a car crash in Paris with Diana, Princess of Wales and driver Henri Paul on 31 August 1997. Fayed married Finnish socialite and former model Heini Wathén in 1985, with whom he has four children: Jasmine, Karim, Camilla, and Omar. In 2013, Fayed’s wealth was estimated at US$1.4 billion, making him the 1,031st-richest person in the world in 2013.
Early life
Born on 27 January 1929 in Bakos, Alexandria, Egypt, as the eldest son of an Egyptian primary school teacher.
He was married for two years, from 1954 to 1956, to Samira Khashoggi. Fayed worked for his wife’s brother, Saudi Arabian arms dealer and businessman Adnan Khashoggi.
Mohamed Fayed has called himself “Al-Fayed” since the early 1970s, and his brothers Ali and Salah also styled themselves “Al-Fayed” at the time of their acquisition of the House of Fraser in the 1980s, though by the late 1980s Ali and Salah had reverted to calling themselves simply “Fayed”. Fayed’s addition of “Al-” to his name, which implies aristocratic origins, has led to Private Eye nicknaming him the “Phoney Pharaoh”. According to his biographer Tom Bower, Fayed also claimed to have come from a town named Fayed after his family.
Mohamed Al-Fayed محمد الفايد |
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Fayed in 2011
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Born | Mohamed Fayed 27 January 1929 Bakos, Alexandria, Egypt |
Residence | Geneva, Switzerland |
Nationality | Egyptian |
Occupation | Chairman of Hôtel Ritz Paris |
Net worth | US$2.0 billion (2015) |
Spouse(s) | Samira Khashoggi (1954–1956) Heini Wathén (1985–present) |
Children | Dodi Fayed Jasmine Fayed Karim Fayed Camilla Fayed Omar Fayed |
Mohamed Al Fayed has a current net worth estimated at $1.94 billion in May 2016 according to Forbes. London-based Egyptian business magnate Mohamed Al Fayed was born on January 27, 1929 in Bakos, Alexandria, Egypt as Mohamed Abdel Moneim Al-Fayed. His first entrepreneurial venture began at school where he sold homemade lemonade. His business interests include the ownership of the English Premiership football team Fulham Football Club, Hôtel Ritz Paris and formerly Harrods Department Store, Knightsbridge. Harrods one of the world’s largest department stores that he controlled until 2010. He sold it to Qatar Holdings for a reported $2.4 billion and he turned his attention to online retail and purchased UK-based discount fashion website, Cocosa, in 2011. He also acquired a controlling stake in Princess Kate Middleton’s favorite designer brand, Issa, for his daughter Camilla.
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