• Transaction / Assets
  • Seller
  • Buyer
  • € MM

Manchester City’s Owner Buys 8,300ha Estate In Extremadura

18 April 2016 – El Mundo

Mansour Al Nayhan (pictured above), the owner of the English football club Manchester City, for which he paid more than €300 million, is a different kind of sheikh. Far from setting his sights on Marbella or Ibiza, like other wealthy Arabs, one of the 19 siblings of the emir of Abu Dhabi has been seduced by the Extremaduran countryside. Last Friday, it was revealed that he has acquired Los Quintos de San Martín, an 8,300 hectare estate in the small Extremaduran town of Valencia de las Torres, which has been owned until now by the Mora-Figueroa family. The price: almost €55 million. (…).

Specifically, the member of the Emirati royal family has done business with Ramón Mora-Figueroa Domecq, from Jerez, one of the most important landowners in Andalucía, who has managed the family estate until now. According to Forbes’ rich list for 2015, Ramón and his siblings (Silvia, María and Fernando) have a combined fortune worth more than €7,000 million. The four manage an extensive network of estates, land, vineyards, properties, industrial warehouses and concessions – Los Guadares, Canteruelas, Agriculturas Diversas and Netco are the largest ones – which makes them one of the most influential families in the south of the peninsula. (…).

Mansour’s fortune comes from black gold (his father, the sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyad discovered oil in the UAE in 1958 and was the first President of the country). The sheikh plans to improve sheep farming on the estate, through which the Matachel river runs, to include another 8,000 heads (there used to be 12,000) and to export thousands of lambs each year (…).

Original story: El Mundo (by Borja Ruiz)

Translation: Carmel Drake