THE BARON AND THE KNIGHT

Dominic Lawson investigates

the unchivalrous joust for the Savoy.

'HE IS a very little man, and he is Italian. So you have a recipe for folie de grandeur . . . but I have no personal animus against him.' This is the considered view of Sir Hugh Wontner on Baron Forte of Ripley, architect of Trusthouse Forte, the world's most profitable hotel company, and would- be controller of The Savoy Hotel plc.

'He is a liar. . . he is a hypocrite. . . but I do not hate him.' Thus Lord Forte himself on Sir Hugh Wontner, chairman of The Savoy for 36 years, Clerk of the Royal Kitchen for 35 years, catering adviser to the Royal Household for the past 50 years, and a former Lord Mayor of London.

These remarks were by no means the only terms of mutual abuse which I jotted in my notebook during interviews with these pillars of the establishment over the past few days. This vicious exchange — between two men who will both be 80 this year — reminded me of nothing so much as the ritual trade in insults between boxers before a big fight. But whereas the boxers do it merely to attract publicity, for Lord Forte and Sir Hugh Wontner the vitriol was an entirely sincere build-up to the Extraordinary General Meeting of Savoy at the Savoy Hotel this Friday. It was called by the directors of the Savoy to persuade shareholders to vote to oppose the bringing of legal action in their name by Trusthouse Forte against Sir Hugh, Who, THF claims, fraudulently issued Savoy shares in 1970, with the intention of using these shares to strengthen his person- al control over the company (see Christ- opher Fildes, City and Suburban, 25 June). Sir Hugh describes THF's allegations as clearly defamatory', but, whatever the outcome of the meeting, THF will press ahead with its case, which is designed to cause the cancellation of the disputed shares. This would have the effect of wresting control of the company from Sir Hugh and a circle of friends said by the Stock Exchange's panel on Takeovers and Mergers to be acting in concert. THF believes that the concert party includes the Greek shipping magnate, Mr Stavros Mar- chos.

Although a committee of Savoy direc- tors told shareholders last week that 'there exists some documentation which would tend, in the absence of explanations or other evidence, to support some of THF's allegations', Lord Forte does not seem to have much faith in the judiciary. 'I think we will lose this case,' he told me in his office on the superstitiously named floor 12A of the THF building in High Holborn: 'I don't think we will get a fair hearing because all the judges have wined and dined at the Savoy for so many years.' But Lord Forte — and indeed the Savoy if necessary — is prepared to take the case all the way to the House of Lords, which is one club of which Charles Forte rather than Hugh Wontner is a member. By then possibly even these extraordinarily well preserved old men will be in their bath chairs, hurling insults at each other from a sedentary position.

If Lord Forte does eventually suceed in taking over the world's most famous hotel group it will mark the end of a tortuous personal odyssey, which may have begun when, as a child, Forte helped out in his father's restaurant, the Savoy Café in Alloa, Clackmannanshire. Forte proposed to his wife in the Savoy Hotel, and they spent part of their honeymoon there.

He first proposed to Hugh Wontner — a takeover of the Savoy, that is — in 1968. 'He was not even a hotelier then you know,' Sir Hugh said to me last week, 'but just a caterer.' (In fact Forte had by then already acquired the Waldorf Hotel in the Aldwych.) According to Sir Hugh, Forte later 'tried to bribe me' to agree to a takeover, although the offers described by Sir Hugh would be more properly de- scribed as part of the strange wooing ritual practised by many businessmen before they admit defeat and move onto the offensive. 'He offered to publish a book of my memoirs. He offered me a permanent suite at the Grosvenor House Hotel. He even offered me the job of president of Trusthouse Forte, replacing Lord Thor- neycroft.' When I put these points to Lord Forte, he became quite animated. 'Yes, it is partly true, but he is twisting the truth in his usual way. So what if I offered to publish his memoirs? They would have sold well. I offered him a suite at the Grosvenor to replace his grace-and-favour free suite in Claridge's [part of the Savoy]. Why not let him keep the Claridge's suite? Because I wanted him out of there. And I offered him the presidency only of the Savoy as part of Trusthouse Forte. It would have been an honorary position in which he would not have been able to make any mischief.'

In 1981 Charles Forte gave up trying to seduce Sir Hugh and mounted a hostile takeover bid — the only one in his career — for the Savoy. He won almost 70 per cent of the ordinary shares. But 30 years earlier, as part of a reaction to a bid from Charles Clore, the Savoy's stockbrokers, Cazenove, had created a dual share struc- ture, in which the 'B' shares had very little in terms of dividend rights, but 20 times the voting power of the 'A' shares. Hugh Wontner had, through various charitable trusts, been building up control of the B shares, so that after Forte's offer closed, it became apparent that although he was entitled to call the Savoy a subsidiary of THF, he was impotent to do anything with it, since the defiant minority had voting control of the Savoy. 'How would you like to own a house, but not be allowed to sit at the table in it?' Lord Forte asked me plaintively on Monday. To a similar com- plaint the Savoy board once pithily re- joined that, 'Lord Forte knew perfectly well what the voting structure was when he began. He nevertheless persisted, and if THF now finds itself in a predicament, it has only itself to blame.'

Since the 1981 debacle THF spared no expense in its campaign to unearth the true ownership of the various trusts and groups which, via the B shares, have retained voting control. But it seemed rather a futile exercise until late last year when THF stumbled across some documents which allegedly indicate that B shares amounting to almost six per cent of the votes which were apparently issued as part considera- tion for the acquisition in 1970 of the Hotel Lancaster in Paris from a M. Emile Wolf were in fact never given to him. Instead, THF claim, they were directed, in various disguises, from Switzerland to Lichten- stein, and then back to Switzerland again, ending up as a charitable foundation con- trolled by Sir Hugh Wontner, his family and associates.

The detail of THF's allegations is ex- traordinary, culminating in the appendix of its circular sent to Savoy shareholders last week, which includes a copy of a letter dated 17 November 1970 from one of Wontner's associates to the French lawyer of M. Wolf, which begins ominously, 'Dear Maitre Mottier, you will remember that, some time ago, Mr Wontner discussed with you the idea of setting up a small company in Switzerland for the purpose of holding the B shares in The Savoy Hotel Limited issued at the time of the completion of the purchase of the Lancaster from M. Wolf. Mr Wontner has asked me to write to you and confirm that he now wishes you to take the necessary steps to this end.' THF clearly believes this to be the smoking gun, although Sir Hugh insisted to me, 'Most people who know me would be very surprised if I'd done anything dishonour- able. They are accusing me of fraud, the worst thing apart from murder, only they haven't found the corpse yet as far as I am concerned.'

But what no one — not even Sir Hugh — has asked publicly, is: how on earth did THF get hold of this letter? There are mutterings in the Savoy camp that the THF legal director Mr George Procter (proud owner of 27 million THF shares) visited the offices of M. Wolf s lawyer in Paris and obtained the letter by describing himself as 'M. Procter of the Savoy'. One or two at the Savoy refer to the episode as 'Procter- gate', with the clear implication that his action amounted to a break-in.

When I challenged Lord Forte on this, he categorically denied that Mr Procter had engaged in any deception. 'It does appear that these people were not entitled to give the letters to Mr Procter. But if we are trying to establish that a deal is fraudulent, can't we use a bit of ingenuity?' said Lord Forte.

Lord Forte has used ingenuity to make his extraordinary journey from the remote mountain village of Montforte between Rome and Naples to his present eminence. That fact, combined with the reputation of the Savoy and the exclusively British upper-class complexion of its board, has encouraged the interpretation of the battle as 'the outsider against the establishment'. This was certainly true of the attempt 35 years ago by Charles Clore and Harold Samuel to take over the Savoy. When Sir Winston Churchill found out about it, he commanded the President of the Board of Trade, Mr Peter Thorneycroft, to block the bid. Initially Thorneycroft refused, only to be met by a further tirade from the then Prime Minister, one of the Savoy's most regular customers.

But today Lord Thorneycroft, having eventually risen to the chairmanship of the Conservative Party, is president . . . of THF. And Mr Giles Shepard, the ebullient and personable managing director of the Savoy Group feels that, if anything, the political establishment is not on his side. 'Charles Forte has built himself a very strong position in the establishment. I think it was no coincidence that in 1981 the Government did not refer THF's bid for us to the Monopolies and Mergers Commis- sion. I am concerned that THF does all the catering at 10 Downing Street, and that afterwards Mrs Thatcher always congratu- lates THF.'

While the Savoy refers archly to Lord Forte as a manager of motorway cafés, Lord Forte beams out from a picture in the THF annual report. Next to him, with an even bigger smile, is Mrs Thatcher. The occasion? The opening of THF's South Mimms Motorway Service Area.

Despite all this, Lord Forte, as his remarks about the judges shows, still appears to feel that the establishment is on the Savoy's side. The truth is that the battle is one of the old Tory establishment against the new one, although Giles Shepard, a former Sheriff of London, resplendent in his yellow shirt, white collar and blue tie, insisted to me that 'I am as Thatcherite as anyone.'

At the business level the fight is clearer still: just a matter of who is better able to run the hotels, Trusthouse Forte or the present management. Giles Shepard (Eton, Harvard Business School and the Coldstream Guards) protests that 'the best hotels are run by small groups. I respect THF immensely as a company. I just don't want to be part of it. In a group with 800 hotels and 32,000 catering outlets manage- ment can't afford to give what is required to be something a bit special.'

When I saw Lord Forte he brandished a photocopy of a treasured letter, sent in November 1980 by Mr Shepard to M. Christian Falcucci, then general manager of the George V in Paris, owned by none other than THF. 'Dear Christian,' read Lord Forte to me in his deep, rather hoarse voice — not at all like the smooth inflec- tions of Mr Shepard — 'Dear Christian, thank you so much for a really memorable evening. What food, what wines, what service . . . what more could one want as the grand finale for a visit to Paris. I was much impressed with all I saw at the George V.' Giles Shepard insisted to me that it was 'below the belt' to use this letter, and argues that it was no more than a bread-and-butter thank you letter from the guest of honour to his host of the evening. 'Actually the dining room was stiflingly hot, the service was very slow, and the food was too heavy.' Fifteen all. Lord Forte to serve. 'When I — we — take over the Savoy perhaps I will offer Mr Shepard the job of general manager at the Savoy. Under our guidance perhaps he could eventually become a hotel man. Miracles have happened before.'

Ultimately, of course, what Lord Forte wants for his shareholders is profits rather than accolades. He wrote down two num- bers in pencil on a piece of paper for my benefit. One was 14, which represents the number of millions of pounds the Savoy made last year in trading profits. The other number, with a ring round it, was 30. This represents the millions which Lord Forte believes he could make in one year owning the Savoy Hotel plc. 'We would get rid of all the management. That's one million saved already.' What about attention to detail, I asked. Did Lord Forte realise that the Savoy made their own mattresses? 'They make their own mattresses, do they? That's bloody marvellous. Why the hell don't they buy them? They would be better and cheaper.'

I remarked to Hugh Wontner that this whole episode reminded me of nothing so much as one of Gilbert and Sullivan's Savoy operettas. 'Oh, did you ever play in one of them when you were at school?'

asked Sir Hugh, a very close friend of the D'Oyly Carte family. Well, I replied, I was only a little pirate, in the Pirates of Penzance. 'That description rather sums up Lord Forte, don't you think?' shot back Sir Hugh. This was one insult I did not relay to Lord Forte. Call it the 13th floor, or call it floor 12A, it is still a long way to fall.