From Jaguar Land Rover to Queens Park Rangers FC – how much of Britain do Indians own?

Take a look at British assets owned by bollygarchs

Think of foreigners snapping up British assets and the Qataris come to mind.

Turns out, they aren’t the only ones.

Last year, wealthy Indians bought up £1bn worth of luxury properties in Mayfair – in just 12 months.

And yesterday, Indian billionaire Yusuffali Kader snapped up Great Scotland Yard for £110m (more on the deal below).

Take a look at British assets Indians own, expect to see a lot of hotels:

 

1. Jaguar Land Rover

In 2008, India’s biggest vehicle maker Tata bought car brands Jaguar and Land Rover from Ford in an £1.15bn deal. The turnover of the new company, Jaguar Land Rover, has been increasing year on year. In 2014, the company sold 462,678 vehicles globally.

This year, the car manufacturer launched plans of creating 1,300 jobs in West Midlands.

 

2. Corus steel

Corus Steel, formed off a merger between British Steel and Dutch company Koninklijke Hoogovens, was taken over by Tata steel in 1999 for a cool £6.2bn. At the time, the deal was the biggest Indian takeover of a foreign company. There was reportedly a fierce bidding war that ensued at the time of the takeover with Tata’s Ratan Tata making an offer Corus couldn’t decline.

 

3. Great Scotland Yard

London is set to get a £10,000-a-night five-star luxury hotel, thanks to Indian billionaire Yusuffali Kader who snapped up Great Scotland Yard for £110m. Sold by Galliard Homes, the hotel is set to open in 2017.

The building served as the Metropolitan Police HQ for 61 years. It’s also been used as headquarters for the British Army, Recruitment Office and Royal Military Police, and the Ministry of Defence Library.

 

4. Grosvenor House Hotel

In 2010, Indian billionaire bad-boy Subrata Roy bought the Grosvenor House Hotel from RBS in a £600m deal. At the time, this was the largest hotel deal on record.

However, Roy has put the hotel for sale and is hoping to make up to £500m. Why? The hotel’s owners Sahara Grosvenor House Hospitality have gone into administration and Roy is currently in jail for raising 240bn rupees (£2.3bn) through illegal bonds.

The hotel boasts 420 rooms, 74 suites, 27 meeting rooms and the largest five-star ballroom in Europe.

 

5. Old War Office

The Hinduja brothers, Britain-based bollygarchs, snapped up Whitehall building and Old War Office in December 2014 for an undisclosed sum. They plan to convert the historic building into homes and a hotel. Together with Spanish group Obrascon Huarte Lain Desarrollos, the Hindujas bought a 250-year lease on the building that was once Sir Winston Churchill’s wartime HQ.

The building, a stone’s throw away from London Eye, Trafalgar Square and the Houses of Parliament, has 1,000 rooms and two-and-a-half miles of corridors.

 

6. Macdonald House, the former Canadian High Commission HQ

In 2013, one of India’s largest residential developers, Lodha Group, forked out £306m to buy the Canadian High Commission in Grosvenor Square.

The neo-Georgian building is set to be converted into flats valued at a whopping £5,000 per square ft.

Abhishek Lodha, managing director of Lodha Group, said at the time: “1 Grosvenor Square is the best address in the world and we will create a world class development which befits the status of this address.”

 

7. Flemings Hotel

Indian-born Satinder Gulhati and his family are worth a whopping £100m, thanks to their hotel empire Veladail Hotels. The Gulhatis own Mayfair’s posh Flemings Hotel.

The family recently sold their 10.85% stake in Edwardian Group to founder of the group Jasminder Singh.

 

8. Vanderbilt and the Radisson Blu Edwardian, Sussex

The above-mentioned Jasminder Singh, boss of Radisson Blu Edwardian hotels group, owns a string of London hotels including the Vanderbilt and the Savoy Court (now Radisson Blu Edwardian, Sussex). According to Edwardian Group’s website, Singh founded the hotel chain in 1975 and led it to join with Radisson in 1993 to become the Radisson Edwardian Hotels group and then later Edwardian Group London.

 

9. Queens Park Rangers Football Club

One of UK’s richest Indians Laksmi Mittal and his son-in-law Amit Bhatia together own Queens Park Rangers Football Club.

Here’s what Bhatia told us about the football club: “QPR is not an investment, the family has never deemed that as an investment – ever. For us this is a passion. You can’t put the same metrics you do to a business to a football club.”

 

10. Washington Hotel and Bentley Hotel in central London

The Sangers own the 120-room and four-star Washington Hotel in Mayfair. They
’ve also snapped up a magistrate court in the City and are planning to turn it into a boutique five-star hotel.

The family also owns London’s 64-room Bentley Hotel in Kensington which boasts silk interiors and Turkish baths.

 

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