Stoke Park’s owners ‘hoped to receive more than £100 million’
Stoke Park Country Club, Spa & Resort, which Donald Trump was reportedly once interested in buying, has been sold to an Indian billionaire for £57 million.
The venue was placed up for sale in 2018 with some reports stating it would sell for £75 million, and the FT reporting that its owners had hoped to fetch more than £100 million in 2021.
A subsidiary of Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries has agreed a deal for Stoke Park, a Georgian mansion on 300 acres in Buckinghamshire.
Ambani is Asia’s richest man, worth more than $70 billion after inheriting the business from his father, and is the owner of UK toy store Hamleys.
“You can see Windsor Castle from the golf course: it is a trophy asset,” said Charles McDowell, a buying agent.
Stoke Park has been in the hands of the King family, owners of healthcare company International Hospitals Group, since 1988.
‘The estate, which attracted interest from buyers from China and the Middle East as well as Ambani, had been hoped to fetch “more than £100m”,’ reports the FT.
‘Roarie Scarisbrick, partner at buying agency Property Vision, said one potential buyer had considered converting the 49-bedroom hotel back into a home but pulled out because “they didn’t want the reputational fallout” from closing the golf club and sacking staff.’
Announcing the deal, Reliance said Stoke Park would remain a members’ club and that it would “look to enhance the sports and leisure facilities at this heritage site, while fully complying with the planning guidelines and local regulations”.
Stoke Park’s 27-hole golf course is known for being the setting for “cinema’s most famous golfing scene”, according to the estate’s website, in which Sean Connery’s James Bond plays against villain Auric Goldfinger, in the 1964 film.
£40m debt so £57m is a pretty good deal….
More like £23m debt and the final sale price was £80m