Toronto’s Four Seasons Hotel, formerly owned by a Saudi prince, has sold to a billionaire sports magnate

It’s business as usual at the Four Seasons, where one super-wealthy foreign owner has replaced another, in a deal worth $225 million. In a press release issued on Friday, Shahid Khan—the Pakistani-American founder of Flex-N-Gate Group, a manufacturer of auto parts—announced that he had purchased the luxury hotel from its former owner, Kingdom Holdings Company, the corporate alter-ego of Alwaleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Alsaud, a Saudi prince who currently ranks 39th on Bloomberg’s list of the world’s richest people. Kingdom Holdings said in a statement that the sale netted it a $17-million profit. The company had owned the hotel since it opened in 2012.

Khan, in addition to supplying “84 per cent of all metal bumper systems for trucks and SUV’s in North America” (that’s what his company’s website says, at any rate), owns the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars and the English soccer team Fulham Football Club. Among his other assets: a moustache for the ages (see above).

“Toronto is home to the iconic Four Seasons brand,” he said in his press release, referring to the fact that the chain is headquartered here. “By taking ownership of this property, I intend to treat it as the treasure that it is.” The hotel will continue to be managed by Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts.