Sir Rocco Forte Exclusive: Luxury Hotel Legend on Saudi Expansion & PIF Investment | The Riyal Deal

Well, I decided because I had members of my family who had interest when I first started the business in '97. My father invested a bit of money. When my parents died, my sisters — I have five sisters. One, Olga, who works with me, the others didn't — they all inherited shares in the business and they had no involvement in the business. So they were kept complaining about this and so I thought I should find a way of taking them out. And so I'd seen there's some transactions in the market which were quite attractive. So I said to Rothschilds, who were my bank, let's see if there's anybody interested. And we sent out a teaser to about 20 companies and PIF came back straight away and said yes, we're interested. We're only interested if we can deal exclusively with you. We don't want to enter into an auction. So we sent them information. They made an offer which was attractive to us and we went ahead and the negotiations took I suppose about six or seven months to come to completion. And so they invested — not only they bought my sisters' shares, they invested money into the company as well, which significantly strengthened our balance sheet. The money invested was really to enhance our growth capabilities. But we've also used it to catch up in our refurbishment programs which were delayed by the COVID period — was two years of basic survival for me. And of course it raised our profile in the world, this deal. PIF are a long-term partner. They look long-term in the future. We're a family business and I have that same outlook. They're not a fund that comes in and out, you know, and wants to turn a profit in the meantime. And so they're the ideal partner for us. They're very good partners. Obviously, they've invested in a huge number of companies around the world of which we're one. And they're very supportive and we work well together.

Yes. Very good. Yes.

Yeah, we've done most of our development in Europe and a lot in Italy in recent years. And we're opening — actually we're opening in Milan, in Via Spiga, the cult in Milan, in a week's time in fact. And most of our development pipeline is in Italy. Obviously with the deal with PIF, it makes sense for us to come into this part of the world. And obviously there are a lot of developments taking place in Saudi Arabia. And we're looking — and we're close to a deal on one of them on the Red Sea, a hotel which has been developed in the Red Sea. And obviously you were talking earlier about tourism development. I mean they really hit it in a big way and they're building a huge number of hotels and a lot of different destinations with a view to becoming an international tourist destination. I mean the fascination of Saudi Arabia is it's so diverse. It's a huge country. They've got mountain regions, coastal areas, and of course Riyadh is going to be one of the biggest centres in this part of the world, if not the biggest — a huge growth in population and a lot of hotel development is taking place there as well. So obviously our partners are keen that we should be involved but I'm keen also because I think it's very exciting what is happening there.

Well, I hadn't been back much in between. In the old Trust Houses Forte company, we had a management contract in Riyadh. And I went with the guy responsible at the time — very young, very young man — to meet with the owners. And that was my first impression of Saudi Arabia. It was very different then to what it is today. And I think what is happening in Saudi Arabia today is quite visionary actually. And the drive and the enthusiasm that's been created is quite amazing. I think Riyadh today reminds me a little bit of New York in the '80s. There's a sort of electric atmosphere and a can-do approach to things. And of course the encouraging women into the workplace has had a big effect. And that's the main difference you see. We were briefly involved in a hotel in Jeddah about 10 years ago and there's a huge difference between then and now in the whole field of Saudi Arabia. And it's of course the vision of one man who's actually making that happen. And so I've never met him but he's — you know, he's a bit of a genius. And the interesting thing, you know, there's a leader of all the various tourism development projects. And he gets involved in a lot of the detail, even down to decoration sometimes. I don't know how he has the time to do it as well as being involved in the international affairs of the country. And they all say, of course, it's wonderful to work for someone who's instigated a thing and he's going to be there to see it come to fruition.