Now Qataris mull a bid for US embassy

WHILE all eyes are on the Qataris’ efforts to snap up supermarket giant J Sainsbury, I’ve heard that the emir is plotting yet another high-profile shopping spree in London.

I am told that the Qatari ruling family has instructed its advisers to prepare a bid for the American embassy in Grosvenor Square, Mayfair, one of the capital’s most exclusive sites, which could be worth about £500m.

Although it’s not officially for sale, the US State Department recently instructed estate agents to look at disposing of the site. Security is the main problem – even the Americans admit that they can’t fit any more concrete bollards around the building. But the real driver is the constant henpecking from locals whose goodwill over the war against terror ended the first time the square was closed.

Ultra-quiet and discreet, the Qataris might seem far more welcome neighbours but, be warned, they do have form when it comes to property renovation in London.

In 1997 Sheikh Mohammed bin Khalifa Al-Thani, the deputy prime minister of Qatar and special adviser to his brother, the emir, bought Lombard House on Curzon Street for £14m. The sheikh spent £20m converting the building from a NatWest bank into a family house. The refur-bishment sparked a row with the builders and contractors that ended in the High Court.

Still, according to the latest Land Registry filings, the property is now worth an estimated £37.5m.

More recently, Sheikh Hamad bin Jassim bin Jabr al-Thani (the one after Sainsbury’s) provided backing for the Candy brothers and their ambitious One Hyde Park in Knightsbridge. The portfolio includes a further seven London houses and a Buckinghamshire estate. Will they be joined by 700-odd supermarkets and an embassy?

BBC chief is not unmoved

AFTER last week’s competition scandal at the BBC, mobs of viewers are penning angry letters to the director-general, Mark Thompson.

Happily for Thompson, he won’t be bothered at home as other directors often are because, Prufrock has discovered, his address listed at Companies House is wrong.

According to the filings, Thomson lives on Polstead Road, north Oxford. But the Land Registry shows he sold the house in 2002 – two years before he joined the BBC and the filings were made. Meanwhile, the electoral roll confirms he lives in St Margaret’s Road, also in north Oxford.

According to Companies House rules “changes of directors” details must be notified within 14 days and any breaches will be investigated.

A Blue Peter badge for anyone with further information.

Buddi can you spare some bigwigs?

BUDDI, the “bratnav” system that goes on sale on Thursday, has not just tickled the tabloids. The idea of a global positioning device that keeps track of kids has grabbed the attention of serious City backers, too.

Sara Murray, designer of the buddi, which fits on a belt “the Quiet Assassin” Bolton, latterly star fund manager at Fidelity; Roberto Quarta, ex-chairman of BBA; Michael Jackson of Sage and John McLaren of Barchester.

Murray said the bigwigs would come in handy – Quarta, for example, was able to help her sort out supplies from an Italian subcontractor. She reckons that every British home will soon have a buddi – so she needs all the or in a bag and costs a mere £299 to buy plus £20 a month to run, has snapped up investors and advisers such as Sir Nigel Rudd, former chairman of Alliance Boots; Anthony help she can get.

- A LOT of men must be carrying round what are euphemistically called “Heavenly Pound Vouchers” in their wallets, according to new accounts from Peter Stringfellow, king of the London lapdancing scene.

A colleague informs me that punters can buy these vouchers and then use them to pay young ladies to remove their clothes. This has even attracted the interest of those who dream up financial-reporting standards. The latest Stringfellows accounts show that a mindboggling £821,000 of vouchers are unredeemed – after two years of lying unused in the wallets of the “gentlemen” who frequent Stringfellows. In beancounter-speak, it’s a contingent liability.

No doubt Charley, pictured right, the gobby former Stringfellows lapdancer on Big Brother, would have an opinion. After all, she does on everything else.

prufrock@sunday-times.co.uk

phone 020 7782 5804; fax 020 7782 5765

Times Recommends

• Lies and cover-up at MG Rover exposed by report
• High oil prices push manufacturing costs up
• Primark founder steps down as chief executive