With the deadline looming on 29 April for Richard Caring to pay back the $233 million outstanding on his loan to HSBC, he has been desperately seeking investors. Will anyone bail out the integrity-free restaurateur this time – or are his bridges finally burnt?


Tricky Dicky faces judgment day at the end of April this year when the $270 million loan he owes to HSBC requires repayment. The one-year extension was already triggered last April. How will he find the money to pay back the money he owes in time?

Here at Richard UnCaring, we are counting down the weeks to see how he weasels his way out of his latest financial Caringocalypse.


Qatar Quits


In the past, UnCaring could rely on his friends in Qatar.


Troia, the holding company he uses to house crown jewels such as The Ivy, Caprice and Harry’s Bar, was returned to the black back in 2018 in time for the Qatari government to rescue it in January 2019. But they now finally appear to have realized what really lies behind that pearly perma-grin and have shut off the taps.


Dick’s partner, Qatar’s former prime minister Sheikh Hamed bin Jassim al-Thani, pumped in $245 million in 2019 for 25 per cent of Troia then another vast but undisclosed sum in 2022 for a further 25 per cent of Caring’s businesses.


Yet just a few weeks ago in December last year, the first clear signs emerged that the Qataris have started to unleverage their position.


With no fanfare, and with the development studiously ignored by UnCaring’s legion of friends in the media who do not want to risk losing their last-minute access to prime tables in London’s most fashionable restaurants, it emerged that Dick has had to expand his own shareholding so that he now has at least 75 per cent, leaving him as the only major shareholder now.

What has happened to the rest of the Qatari share is not known. But it is not there anymore, fueling rumors already gossiped about across London that they have grown sick of Caring and his failed promises of vast returns from his businesses.








(Companies House, UK)

Both Dick’s main entities, MBH Group and CH Acquisitions, are reporting a loss. Troia itself is now on life-support, dependent on funding from MBH Group as it eats into what remains of HSBC’s money ahead of the due date for its $270 million loan in April.


So desperate has the situation become, that Dick has had to promise to use his own money to make up any shortfall so that the Directors of Troia were comfortable to keep the business going. How is he going to keep operating this time?


Enter … the Mysterious Si Advisors


Tricky Dicky looked to have lived to fight another day when it was announced in September that he had found a buyer for his Ivy Restaurant group. His friends in the media triumphed that it valued the restaurant chain at $1.2 billion – another triumph for Britain’s greatest restauranteur.


Or is it? Here at Richard UnCaring, we could not help but notice the silence that followed the leaks that a deal was nearly done. September turned into October, into November, then into Christmas, and into the New Year. No further news has come.


Who are Si Advisors? And can they really save Tricky Dicky’s bacon this time?


It does not take looking into them to question if they can. Indeed the more one peels away the layers of Caring’s new BFF, the less it appears they could ever be in a position to deploy or raise $1.2 billion.

Even just a quick examination of their accounts makes clear the investment firm is at present managing only around $250 million. Its book is mainly made up of ESG co-investments in small tea companies such as Global Tea and Commodities and the Moroccan company, Imperium Holding, handling deals in tens of millions – not billions.  


Nor is Si stable, undergoing significant changes to its board of directors. The firm was previously run by Hamza Ben Abderahmen, who recently resigned, alongside Ameel Somani, a 40-year-old Canadian private equity investor. After Hamza’s resignation, Ameel was left as the only Partner of the firm.


Domin-oo-hoo-hoo

The answer to how this dwarfish investment firm is hoping to be involved in the deal may answer with Ameel’s wife, Faaiza Lalji, a member of the prominent Lalji dynasty who have amassed much of their $3 billion fortune from real estate ventures.


Originally from Uganda, the Laljis own Larco Investments, one of Canada’s largest real estate empires, with a portfolio that includes iconic landmarks such as Ottawa’s Château Laurier and Toronto’s Dominion Public Building.


Their London firm, Precis Advisory, has a portfolio that includes hotels in Westminster, Kensington and Chelsea. Its directors include Faaiza, but also her relative Nadira Lalji, who is married to Jay Verjee from London’s wealthy Verjee family.


Lord Rumi Verjee, who was also born in Uganda, is best known for founding Domino’s Pizza in the UK aged 28. He is now a member of the House of Lords, sitting as a Liberal Democrat.


The involvement of Si itself may not seem anything more than an attempt by Tricky Dicky to try to create a runner, to bring others into the race to buy his heavily indebted empire before time runs out.


But those around Si do have the money and experience to potentially be serious buyers.


However, since the September valuation at $1.2 billion, there has been no news. Given their record in real estate and potential backing from Lord Verjee, who is highly experienced in the UK restaurant and retail sector, the Laljis are clearly shrewd negotiators and unlikely to act rashly.

Is it the case that they were primarily not interested in the restaurants and clubs but – leveraging what they know – the prime real estate that house them?


One suggestion made by those in the know is that the losses that UnCaring’s ventures are racking up are so significant that they would be worth no more as eateries if it was Lord Verjee’s pizzas that dominated the menus, and the kitchen was reduced to just a series of his super-heating Dominos’ ovens and minimum wage staff.


The involvement of Si Advisors raises more questions than it answers. As we enter 2025 with no new developments, the most important question must nevertheless be: what could they have possibly found when looking at the books to explain such a delay?


More to come…