Tycoon: HRH is considering taking a stake... will you?
I am obviously keen to ensure that you get the best possible service here
to attend. The leaked email trail about the visit begins on October 14. Jonathan Rowland emailed senior Saudi government official Amr Al-Dabbagh, chairman of the Board of Directors at the powerful Saudi Arabian General Investment Authority (SAGIA), proposing they get together.
Under the subject line ‘Duke of York’, Jonathan Rowland wrote: ‘Amr. Hope you are well. After having spoken with the DOY he suggested we get together to discuss our newly acquired bank in Luxembourg investing in Saudi Arabia and in particular opening a branch/representative office in Riyadh. We would be keen also to discuss possible [sic] applying for an Investment Banking License. Can you propose a convenient time for us to do so? We are due to be in Abu Dhabi at the F1 race and Bahrain afterwards if that is of any use?’
Mr Al-Dabbagh replied a few days later, eager to help. In the fortnight that followed, there were various attempts to co-ordinate diaries, taking Prince Andrew’s schedule as a starting point.
When it became clear that tying it in with the trip to Abu Dhabi for the Grand Prix was not going to work out, Jonathan Rowland proposed an alternative date. Emphasising the Duke’s involvement, he told Mr Al-Dabbagh: ‘My father and I met with the Duke last night for dinner and he had given us a date 14-15 November to visit you together rather than after F1. Does this work for you? He will contact you direct but I am pre-empting that.’
This did the trick. Excitedly, the
Rowlands began making arrangements to fly to Saudi on November 14, using the Prince’s deputy private secretary, Amanda Thirsk, to do some of their legwork. On November 11, a senior SAGIA official wrote to her, enclosing details of the bank licensing process in Saudi Arabia ‘to pass to the Banque Havilland Team’. ‘Would you please let us know when on the 15th His Royal Highness, the Duke of York, and the Banque Havilland team would like to meet?’ the official asked. Thirsk, who became the Duke’s private secretary in 2012 but who is now switching roles following his disastrous BBC interview, forwarded the message ‘in confidence’ to Margaret Morrow, one of the team at Banque Havilland. Ms Morrow sent it on to her boss, Jonathan Rowland, suggesting he tell Ms Thirsk ‘what she needs to do’.
The Prince arrived at Riyadh International Airport on the evening of November 14, 2009. The exact nature of his visit remains ambiguous. In December 2010, the Government produced a list of the Duke’s overseas trade envoy trips which had been undertaken ‘in agreement with and in support of’ government objectives. This trip was not on that list.
And yet Buckingham Palace’s Court Circular, which is approved by the Queen, records the Prince arrived in Riyadh in his role as the UK’s ‘Special Representative for International Trade and Investment’ – his official trade envoy title. Whatever the status of his trip, the Duke had pressing business. On the morning of November 15, he attended a meeting with representatives of SAGIA – just as had been planned.
Afterwards, Al-Dabbagh wrote to Jonathan Rowland saying it had been a pleasure to host his ‘delegation’ and that he was looking forward to working together. He made clear the Rowland’s bank licence application would be fast-tracked.
‘I… expect a robust execution to be developed by my team to ensure we move ahead as fast as you would like to – on licensing and on mutually beneficial investment strategies,’ he told Rowland.
Thanks to the Duke, the Rowlands were well on their way to opening a branch of their new bank in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. But the trip also offered another golden opportunity for the Rowlands’ business. What if the Duke could persuade a Saudi royal to become a partner in the venture? The evening after the SAGIA meeting, Andrew fortuitously had dinner with one of the more charismatic members of the Saudi royal family: Prince Sultan bin Salman bin Abdulaziz al Saud. A former air force pilot, Prince Sultan is the second son of the current King Salman. Prince Sultan was the first Arab and Muslim to fly in space, when he joined the crew of the Nasa space shuttle
Discovery in 1985. But it was as the kingdom’s then tourism chief that he hosted Andrew. It is unclear whether Jonathan Rowland also attended, but the leaked emails make clear he did meet Prince Sultan during the two-day trip.
Following the trip, on November 24, 2009, Jonathan Rowland emailed Prince Sultan, stating that Prince Andrew had personally suggested the Saudi Prince become a business ‘partner’ in a planned expansion of Banque Havilland. In the message, Rowland claimed that both Andrew and the Saudi Prince would be actively involved in the bank’s proposed new operation.
‘It was a pleasure meeting you in Riyadh last week with HRH Prince Andrew. As I briefly mentioned we recently acquired a bank in Luxembourg to add to our Family office and we will be looking to expand into KSA [Kingdom of Saudi Arabia]. HRH suggested that you might like to become our partner in KSA, and like him, have an involvement in the operation we create,’ he wrote.
While Saudi Arabia had long been a defence and trade ally of the UK, the regime’s questionable human rights record made diplomatic relations delicate. A private business relationship involving the Queen’s son and a member of the Saudi Royal Family would be hugely controversial.
As he continued with his pitch, Jonathan Rowland made another striking claim: not only did the Rowlands represent Andrew, he said, they also represented the wider British Royal Family.
‘The Rowland Family has been investing globally for 45 years through my Father and more recently myself and our offices in
London, Guernsey and Luxembourg. We advise HRH exclusively on all his business matters and travel with him regularly and often act as an intermediary between the British Royal Family and other families around the World including Royal families and heads of state,’ he wrote.
In the run-up to Christmas, Rowland continued to pursue the business opportunity. In a further comment, he proposed that Andrew could have a stake in the proposed new banking business. In an email to one of Prince Sultan’s aides, he suggested the ‘three families’ – the British Royals, Prince Sultan’s family, and the Rowlands – could work together around the world. ‘As I mentioned… we are keen to expand our banking activities into Bahrain and Saudi Arabia. To this extent our thoughts/proposals are that His Royal Highness [Prince Sultan] considers becoming an equity partner in the subsidiary in Bahrain/ Saudi Arabia (as is the HRH the Duke of York) and the three families work together in the region.’
In a final push, Rowland emphasised how valuable it was to have the Queen’s son on board. ‘With our close links to HRH DOY we have many opportunities and possibilities other institutions/families are unable to execute,’ he wrote.