Forte, the chairman and founder of Rocco Forte Hotels, said the group’s alliance with Saudi Arabia’s Public Investment Fund (PIF) had “strengthened our balance sheet and given us a higher profile around the world,” enabling further expansion across Europe, the Middle East and Asia.
“The PIF are very good people to work with. They take a long-term, strategic view,” Forte told Arabian Business during an interview in Dubai. “They saw potential in us, not for short-term returns but for sustained global growth.”
The Saudi sovereign wealth fund acquired a 49 per cent stake in the family-owned hotel group in 2023, marking its first investment in a European luxury hospitality brand. The partnership, Forte said, remains unaffected by the fund’s recent decision to cut spending and prioritise domestic projects.
“They’ve made their investment and continue to support us. It’s not impacted by their broader spending shift,” he said.
The hotelier, who has relocated to Italy, joins a growing list of wealthy Britons moving abroad amid higher taxation and regulatory pressure in the UK. According to Henley & Partners’ 2025 Global Citizens Report, an estimated 16,500 millionaires are projected to leave Britain this year, making it the largest single-year outflow of wealthy residents ever recorded for any country. This figure is almost double China’s projected outflow and underscores the scale of the UK’s wealth migration challenge.
The exodus of rich Britons follows a series of fiscal changes in the UK, including higher capital gains and dividend tax rates, the reduction of the lifetime allowance for pensions, and the planned abolition of the “non-dom” tax status that previously allowed wealthy residents to limit taxation on overseas income. The measures, combined with political uncertainty and a rising cost of living, have prompted many high-net-worth individuals to relocate or move assets to more favourable jurisdictions such as Italy, the United Arab Emirates and Monaco.
Forte said that access to Gulf capital and markets was now “critical” for British businesses seeking to expand internationally. “It’s a dynamic region with investors who think big and move fast,” he said.
Rocco Forte Hotels currently operates 15 properties, including Brown’s Hotel in London, Hotel de Russie in Rome, and The Balmoral in Edinburgh. The group is developing new projects in Saudi Arabia’s Red Sea development, Milan, and the Maldives, and has also signed a partnership with the Emirates Golf Society to attract Gulf travellers to its Sicilian resort.
“We like smaller, distinctive hotels where we can give a more personal service,” Forte added. “Each hotel should be special in its own right, not just another flag on the map.”
