Wafic Said: businessman, philanthropist and political fixer

Wafic Saïd is a Syrian-born businessman, philanthropist and political fixer who first came to attention for his role in helping British companies win the Al-Yamamah Saudi defence contract, the country’s biggest foreign arms deal.

Scion of a well known Levantine family — his grandfather was an Ottoman colonial governor, while his eye-surgeon father founded what is now Damascus University — the Saïds lost their properties and much of their wealth in the military coup of 1961 and the Ba'athist takeover two years later.

The political turmoil meant Mr Said was unable to take up a place he had won at Cambridge. Instead he trained as a banker in London, before working for UBS in Geneva.

His entrepreneurial flair was evident early on. He started restaurants in London including the fashionable Caravanserai in Kensington High Street, and became involved in construction and property.

In the wake of the 1973 oil crisis triggered by the Yom Kippur war, the businessman won a series of contracts to build housing and hospitals in Saudi Arabia.

His business acumen and international contacts helped him forge relations with the Saudi royal family — the pinnacle of which was having the unusual honour of having Saudi nationality conferred upon him.

He told The Spectator in a rare interview in 2012 that once he had won the Saudi royal family’s trust “they all want you to do everything. If I ever lose all I have, I could be a fantastic butler”.

By the mid-1980s, his Saudi connections were starting to attract the interest of British officials. So when British Aerospace — the company that later became BAE Systems — was looking to sell Tornado fighter jets and other planes to the Saudis, it turned to him for help.

His role in the Al-Yamamah contract, the largest ever British defence deal valued at £40bn, is the reason he is sometimes described in newspapers as an “arms dealer”.

Only 20 per cent of the deal related to the fighter planes, the rest being the construction, back-up and accompanying oil deals. In 2006 Tony Blair’s government dropped an SFO corruption investigation connected to the contract.

In recent times, he is better known for his good works. He gave £50m in 1996 to found the Saïd Business School in Oxford, and has a charity for disadvantaged children, supporting grass roots organisations in the Middle East. He gave £250,000 to the victims of the 2005 bombings in London.

Like other foreigners who made money in Britain, he has been active as a political donor, largely supporting the Conservatives.

Mr Saïd’s donations were banned because he was not deemed to be a British resident — he is tax resident in Monaco. But in 2005 his daughter was recorded as giving £47,000 to the Conservatives.

He is said to be close to Syrian President Bashar al-Assad’s Anglo-Syrian wife Asma — who is known in British intelligence circles by the acronym Flossie or First Lady of Syria.

In recent years, Mr Saïd has tried — without success — to put these connections to use in ending the Syrian conflict.

The war has put paid to two of his own Syrian projects — a centre for excellence in teaching and learning at Damascus University and a not-for-profit hospital in the Syrian capital.

He has houses in Mayfair, Oxfordshire, Paris, Marbella and Monaco. His wealth was estimated at £1.5bn by the Sunday Times Rich List in 2014.