The billionaire owners of the Ritz and the Telegraph newspapers are close to buying the five-star Beaumont hotel in London after outbidding its operators, the restaurant doyens Christopher Corbin and Jeremy King.
Sir David and Sir Frederick Barclay — the secretive twins who live in the Channel Islands — are understood to have agreed to buy the Mayfair hotel’s lease from the Grosvenor Estate for between £125m and £140m.
The auction attracted serious interest from five bidders, including the Singapore hotel company Royal Group as well as Corbin & King, which runs smart London restaurants such as the Wolseley.
