By
Sarah Graham
Last updated at 3:10 PM on 14th January 2012
Soho House, the private members club chain which has branches across the globe and is a favourite of A listers, has been bought for £250 million by an American billionaire.
Ron Burkle, a friend of former U.S. president Bill Clinton, has reportedly bought a 60 per cent share in the franchise. The deal is said to make it the most valuable chain in the world.
The 58-year-old – a major political fundraiser – is listed on the Forbes 400 and was said to have an estimated net worth of $3.2 billion in 2011.
Friends in high places: Billionaire businessman Ron Burkle, pictured with Sean ‘P Diddy’ Combs in 2007, is a friend of Bill and Hillary Clinton
Soho House is one of the hottest spots in the world, attracting A List celebrities and media executives. It first opened its doors in Greek Street, London, in the early Nineties. Its founder and owner, British entrepreneur Nick Jones, expanded the chain with a further eight houses globally including spots in New York, Berlin and West Hollywood. It is said the sale will be worth £20 million to Jones.
In an email to its members, Jones – married to former newsreader and Desert Island Discs presenter Kirsty Young – said of the deal: ‘Though we’ve had a number of interested parties table offers for Soho House in the last few years, I believe that Ron shares our vision, and provides us with the backing to expand and improve our clubs whilst remaining true to our original ethos.’
£20m better off: Nick Jones by the pool on the roof terrace of members club Shoreditch House, part of the Soho House group
Burkle started out in the supermarket business as a bag boy at his father’s grocery store, later dropping out of college. His career has seen him serve on various boards including Alliance Entertainment and, currently, Yahoo!
Dubbed the ‘Billionaire Party Boy’ by the New York Post, Burkle raised more than $1,000,000 for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. Bill Clinton is employed by a private equity firm Burkle founded after dropping out of college, The Yucaipa Companies.
It is thought the deal will enable the chain to open further houses in Toronto, Chicago, Mumbai and Istanbul.
Soho Beach House in Miami: The franchise is also set to open in Mumbai and Toronto
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Well, the Americans have just about bought up our entire country – a true foreign take-over. They are not part of the EU we are supposed to be financing but I guess they have come in through the back-door through various different shady groups.
We all know that Tony Blair has been doing the US’ bidding for decades, after himself being given plenty of ‘incentives’ / free trips etc BEFORE he even became Prime Minister. The entire aim of his ridiculous ‘Cool Britannia’ (we were ‘cool’ long before Tony came along!) was to Americanise this country and he has succeeded spectacularly.
We can no longer even speak our language – the mother tongue of the world’s international language. Funny, isn’t it, how many millions of people around the world once tuned in to the BBC World Service and managed to understand our language but, simply because the Americans couldn’t understand us, we have been forced to dumb-down our once beautiful language to their low standards In just 20 years.
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