Peter de Savary

De Savary was the son of a French-born Essex farmer,[1] and was educated in Britain at Charterhouse, Godalming, from which he was expelled at the age of 16.[3] He then moved to Canada where his mother and stepfather lived; he did gardening, baby-sitting and children's private tuition.[3][4] At the age of 18, with his wife Marcia,[5] he moved back to the UK to work for his father.[4] During a visit to Canada in 1969 he took over a small import-export agency, Afrex, that did business in Africa.[4][6] On a subsequent flight to Nigeria he met the brother of the President of Nigeria with whom he went into business supplying wheat, flour, steel, cement and other goods to Nigeria and other African countries making him a millionaire by the age of 30.[4]

De Savary purchased a part-ownership in a Kuwait-registered oil company called Artoc. With others he also started a bank in Nassau, Bahamas. The bank specialised in investing in property, shipping, oil refineries and coal mining in South America. The bank was not very successful and in 1980 lost $64 million. De Savary negotiated a deal with the Italian financier Roberto Calvi for Calvi to buy a 20% share in Artoc but Calvi was found hanged under Blackfriars Bridge in London in 1984 and de Savary left Artoc.[2]

Skibo Castle in Sutherland, Scotland.

His first venture into hospitality was the St. James' Clubs in the late 1970s, in Los Angeles, London, Paris and Antigua, which he sold in the late 1980s to finance the £4m purchase of Skibo Castle. De Savary built up a large business empire in the 1980s, with property interests including Land's End and John o' Groats.[7]

However, in the early 1990s economic downturn his empire collapsed – he sold both Land's End and John o' Groats in 1991 for an undisclosed sum to the businessman Graham Ferguson Lacey, and his holding company Placeton went bankrupt in 1994 with debts of £200 million by one source[3] and £715 million by another.[8]

In 1997, he bought Vernon Court, a 14,000-square-foot in Newport RI. He planned to develop it into a members-only hotel similar to his Skibo Castle in Scotland. However, due to objection by neighbours the plans were dropped and the mansion was sold the following year.[9]

His business activities since 2000 concentrated on property development and hotels, with a number of major country house hotels incorporating golf courses. De Savary saw a niche for the affluent: leisure properties that were small enough to make guests feel as though they were on their own private estate, but equipped with all the facilities of the world's great hotels. His first such development was The Carnegie Club at Skibo Castle in Scotland, the venue for Madonna and Guy Ritchie's wedding. This was sold in 2003 to Ellis Short.[10] Through his wife Lana's company, Havana West,[11] other similar developments have included: the Cherokee Plantation in South Carolina; Stapleford Park and Bovey Castle, both in England; and Carnegie Abbey in Rhode Island. Each is a private club with golf courses and other amenities — clay pigeon shooting, falconry, horse riding, tennis — depending on what fits with the club's local environment.

Again with Lana's Havana West company[11] he founded the Abaco Club at Winding Bay in Abaco, Bahamas, building a golf course at the location.

He bought four properties in Grenada in the Caribbean, where he developed a marina and resort village.[12][13]

In late 2009, de Savary purchased a former YMCA located in Newport, RI, that had been converted into Vanderbilt Hall hotel.[14] He added a small collection of American Illustration artworks to the property from the American Illustrators Gallery, New York, including a piece by Howard Chandler Christy titled "Jeanie with the Light Brown Hair". The painting depicts Stephen Foster composing the song of the same name. Other artists on display included Bradshaw Crandell, Constantin Alajalov, Helen Dryden, John Lagatta, George Hughes, Thomas Webb, Rico Tomaso, Carl Burger and Rolf Armstrong. The property was sold to Grace Hotels in 2010, then to Auberge Resorts Collection in 2018.

De Savary led the British sailing team in its challenge for the America's Cup in 1983 but his contender, Victory 83, was beaten by Australia II in the final heat. In 1992 de Savary withdrew from the race as he could not raise the £2 million necessary to compete.[2]

De Savary used the motor yacht Kalizma (formerly home to Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton during filming in London, named for their children) as a support vessel for the America's Cup races, but has since sold the ship. He also once owned the luxury yacht MY Land's End. In 1988 he founded Pendennis Shipyard in Falmouth, Cornwall, which builds and restores luxury yachts. He was responsible for the development of the new housing complex called Port Pendennis, also in Falmouth, which adjoins the shipyard there. He was also a sponsor of the Grenada Sailing Festival.

De Savary raced for many years in the Bucket Regatta in Newport, Rhode Island, and St Barts in the Caribbean. He was awarded the trophy "Spirit of the Bucket" in 2010. He was a member of the Royal Thames Yacht Club and the New York Yacht Club.

In November 2005, he succeeded Theo Paphitis as chairman of Millwall Holdings plc and as chairman of Millwall F.C. Stewart Till succeeded him on 3 May 2006 as the football club chairman, and de Savary remained as chairman of Millwall Holdings plc until October 2006.

In March 2011, de Savary was linked with a deal to purchase the financially stricken League One club Plymouth Argyle F.C. However, de Savary denied any interest in buying the club, which was eventually purchased by Plymouth City Council the following October.[15]