Simon Halabi | |
---|---|
Born |
Bassam Simon Halabi August 1958 (age 58) Syria |
Nationality | British |
Spouse(s) | Urte |
Children | Samuel (d. 2003) Jacob |
Bassam Simon Halabi (Arabic: سيمون حلبي born August 1958) is a Syrian-born British businessman and property developer.
His wealth derived initially from his father, who was a successful businessman in Syria and backed his son in his early ventures. Embarking on a series of speculative property ventures, Simon amassed a sizeable fortune himself. In the Sunday Times Rich List 2007, he was ranked 14th richest person in Britain, while the Forbes list of global billionaires listed him at no. 194 in 2007, with an estimated net worth of US$4.3billion. In 2009, Forbes ranked him no. 224 with a reduced net worth of US$2.8 billion.
Although he remained a private man, he is fond of conspicuous consumption, owning a large fleet of luxury cars including Bentleys and Rolls Royce Phantoms, as well as a 130-ft yacht.
In late 2007 the sports gym chain Esporta, which he had purchased for £460m, was forced into administration, costing Halabi at least £120m of his own money, and damaging his relationship with his main creditors, Société Générale.
In January 2008, Halabi sold his one-third stake in the flagship Shard development in London for £30m—a stake that had been valued at over £130m six months earlier. Later that year the Mentmore Towers project, which Halabi had purchased in 1997 with a view to turning it into a six-star hotel, ran into problems. The grade II listed building was mothballed, with essential maintenance work remaining undone as the project architects sued Halabi for unpaid fees. In summer 2008 English Heritage ranked three of Halibi's assets as "Buildings at Risk".
In June 2009, his group of property companies defaulted on $1.9 billion of bonds. The debts in question had been secured on nine London properties, which had fallen in value by up to 50% since the start of the credit crunch, leaving them in negative equity. In August 2009 insolvency specialists MCR were appointed as liquidators of Buckingham Securities Holdings, Halabi's principal client advisory vehicle.