Who Owns Harrods?
Harrods is ultimately owned by the Qatar Investment Authority, Qatar’s sovereign wealth fund, which is recorded at Companies House as the person with significant control of the UK holding company at the top of the group. The store itself trades through Harrods Limited, company number 00030209 — a company incorporated in 1889 and still active. Between the two sit four further holding companies. Ownership verified 5 September 2026.
Who owns the Harrods brand?
The Knightsbridge store is operated by Harrods Limited (00030209), incorporated on 20 November 1889 and registered at 87/135 Brompton Road. That is the company you are dealing with when you shop there, and it was formerly named Harrods Stores Limited.
Harrods Limited does not own itself. Its registered person with significant control is Harrods (UK) Limited (01889348), which holds 75% or more of the shares and voting rights and the right to appoint and remove directors. That company was previously called Harrods Holdings plc.
Parent company and ultimate owner
The chain recorded at Companies House runs through five companies before it leaves the UK register:
- Harrods Limited (00030209) — the operating company
- Harrods (UK) Limited (01889348) — 75%+ of shares and votes
- Harrods Holdings Limited (01848143) — 75%+ of shares and votes
- QH Participations Limited (06511479) — holds between 50% and 75%
- Harrods Group (Holding) Limited (05990648) — 75%+ of shares and votes
At the top, the person with significant control of Harrods Group (Holding) Limited is recorded as the Qatar Investment Authority, described on the register as a Qatari governmental authority, holding 75% or more of the shares and voting rights and the right to appoint and remove directors.
One detail is easy to miss. Harrods Holdings Limited has two registered controllers, not one: QH Participations Limited at 50–75%, and QH Partners Limited (05961740) at 25–50%. Both are UK-registered, and both sit inside the same Qatari group, but the ownership at that level is split rather than absolute.
Brand owner vs operating company
“Harrods” names several different things, and they are not interchangeable.
The operating company is Harrods Limited — it runs the store, employs the staff and files the trading accounts.
The ultimate owner is the Qatar Investment Authority, which owns the group but does not operate the shop.
Other companies carry the name without being the store. Harrods Aviation Limited (02043317) and Harrods Beauty Limited (00099442) are separate registered companies, and a Companies House search for “Harrods” returns over a hundred matches — most of which have no connection to the Knightsbridge business at all. Match on company number, not on name.
When the ownership changed
Harrods was bought by Qatar Holding, part of the Qatar Investment Authority structure, in 2010, for a price widely reported at around £1.5 billion. The seller was Mohamed Al Fayed, who had owned the store since 1985.
The PSC entries themselves are all dated 6 April 2016. That is not the date ownership changed — it is the date the PSC regime began requiring companies to file this information, and it appears on the great majority of UK PSC records. Treat it as the start of the disclosure, not the start of the ownership.
Related brands in the same group
The Qatar Investment Authority holds interests across a wide range of UK assets, and Harrods is one of its most visible. Because QIA’s holdings are made through many separate vehicles, a shared ultimate owner does not mean two businesses are run together, share management, or have any commercial relationship. Where this site links Harrods to another QIA-held business, that link means common ultimate ownership and nothing more.
Sources and verification
Every ownership statement above comes from the Companies House register, following the PSC entries company by company rather than relying on secondary reporting. The company numbers are given so each step can be checked independently.
Two cautions apply, as they do to any UK company research. Companies House does not verify most of what is filed with it, so the register records what companies have declared. And the ownership is stated as at the verification date at the top of this page; group structures are reorganised more often than they are reported.
Sources and verification
Ownership last verified .