Cut price Ritz
FOR a big-hitting bonus earner — say, a general partner in Goldman Sachs — this Christmas offers the chance to buy an unusual present: the Ritz Hotel. Its owner, Trafalgar House, has reduced it to clear from £85 million, the price marked in the books, to £20 million. This must leave it within the range of a capable Eurobond saleswoman. Better still, it opens the Ritz's swing-door to my plan for a customer buy- out, which would let all the Ritz's friends put the hotel pro rata on their bills. I hope that the ownership can be well spread before some greedy luncher signs for the hotel and gets it through his expense account disguised as a first growth claret. My plan could be adapted to the Savoy, which may need it, one of these days. Its future could be secured by a whip-round in the Grill Room, or Dealmakers' Arms, led by Sir Michael Richardson, Savoy director and dealmaker in chief. As for the Ritz, now that Trafalgar is a protectorate of the great Jardine Matheson empire, I pin my hopes on Jardine's chairman, Henry Keswick, once an heroic proprietor of The Spectator. I have noticed him enjoying the Ritz's breakfast, which I rate the best in London. Try the kedgeree, Henry.
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