The Barclay brothers now own Claridges, The Connaught and The Berkeley… as well as The Ritz

News is just in tonight that Sir David Barclay and his brother Sir Frederick, who own the Daily Telegraph newspaper and the Littlewoods retail group in the UK, have bought the loans originally made to the Maybourne Hotel Group by two Irish banks in 2005 to fund the acquisition of three top London hotels – Claridges, The Connaught and The Berkeley.  By buying the loans, they acquire the hotels from the National Asset Management Agency (Nama), the Irish government agency that was given the responsibility of managing the loans at the height of the financial crisis.  The two brothers already owned The Ritz hotel in London.