Sheikh ‘had his water tanks filled with bottles of Evian’
UNITED Arab Emirates president Sheikh Khalifa Bin Zayed Al Nahyan once filled the water tanks of his British mansion with Evian, it was claimed yesterday.
The billionaire ruler is said to have used the bottled mineral water at his £60million Berkshire home, court documents suggest.
The extraordinary claim surfaced during a High Court dispute between Berkeley Square Holdings and Lancer Property Asset Management, former managers of his £5.5billion London property empire.
Sheikh Khalifa, whose halfbrother is Manchester City’s billionaire owner Sheikh Mansour Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, severed ties with the firm in 2017 and replaced them with an Abu Dhabi-owned company.
Since then the two sides have been locked in a legal battle.
Papers allege the wealthy president had the bottled Evian shipped in from France, despite never occupying 18th century Ascot Place, near Windsor Castle.
The sheikh’s London property empire consists of 120 properties in some of the most exclusive locations, including Mayfair, Oxford Street and New Bond Street. Lancer’s directors are countersuing Berkeley Square Holdings for unfair dismissal as well as unpaid fees, accusing Sheikh Khalifa of “profligacy”.
In the action, the sheikh’s companies are suing Lancer for tens of millions of pounds in damages. They accuse Lancer of dishonesty and fraud. Lancer’s directors deny all the claims against them and have called the lawsuit vexatious and malicious. Documents claim Sheikh Khalifa spent more than £450,000 a year on 15 permanent staff for a country house north of Madrid – despite the Sheikh or his family not visiting for 17 years.
He is also said to have purchased a £5million house in south-west London, but was unable to use it because it was too small for his security detail.
Sheikh Khalifa is Emir of Abu Dhabi and the president of
the United Arab Emirates, an oil-rich country that consists of seven emirates.
He has been the president since 2004, following the death of his father Sheikh Zayed Bin Sultan Al Nahyan – the founding father of the UAE. His powerful position makes him supreme commander of the UAE armed forces and chairman of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority.
In 2013 Sheikh Khalifa attended a state banquet at Windsor Castle hosted by the Queen as part of a historic twoday visit to the UK. At the time Boris Johnson, then mayor of London, described the capital as the “eighth emirate”.
The gala banquet came three years after the Queen presented him with the Knight Grand Cross of the Most Honourable Order of the Bath, while he conferred on her the Order of Zayed, the UAE’s highest civil decoration Although he is still president, Sheikh Khalifa has stepped back from public life after suffering a stroke in 2014.
His half-brother, Sheikh Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, Crown Prince of Abu Dhabi, carries out most of the public affairs and day-to-day running of the UAE.
Sheikh Khalifa was revealed by the 2016 Panama Papers to have built one of the biggest offshore property empires in Britain.
Berkeley Square Holdings, which owns £5billion-worth of properties in London, has tenants including Hermes, Alice Temperley and Annabel’s nightclub.
As chairman of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, a sovereign wealth fund with up to £650billion in assets, along with a family fortune of £120billion, Sheikh Khalifa is among the world’s wealthiest men.