A Gain for Rayne

When it was built on Manhattan's Fifth Avenue and 58th Street in 1927, the $18 million Savoy Plaza became one of the world's most luxurious hotels. A favorite of aristocrats, diplomats and cinema stars, it has been host to the likes of the King of Nepal, Adlai Stevenson, William Scranton, Prince Bernhard of The Netherlands and Groucho Marx. The Savoy also captured the fancy of a darkly handsome British real estate tycoon named Max Rayne. Two years ago he bought one-third of the hotel from William Zeckendorf, later bought the whole thing when Zeckendorf became even harder pressed for cash. Last week representatives of Rayne's London Merchant Securities Ltd. concluded an agreement for a huge and shrewd real estate deal involving the Savoy Plaza.

Down will come the 33-story hotel, and in its place will rise a 40-story office skyscraper that will house the New York and overseas headquarters of General Motors. G.M. is eager to trade up from its shabby, 37-year-old offices at Broadway and 57th Street. Rayne is more than happy to accommodate G.M. by razing the Savoy Plaza; he believes that the New York hotel market is overbuilt and will be in trouble after the World's Fair closes. Says he: "What's good for General Motors is good for London Merchant Securities Ltd."

Money from the Church. A swift-rising millionaire who has not yet made the British Who's Who, Rayne, now 46, fell into real estate by lucky accident. Just after he was demobbed from the wartime R.A.F., he and his father leased a London building for $2,000, but found it unsuitable for their women's-dress business. He sublet the place, was surprised to find that he could earn $15,000 a year on the transaction. With that he stripped off the textiles, went fulltime into Britain's booming property market. His reputation for impeccable manners, soft talk and smart business sense soon gained him entree to the most munificent lenders, including Church Estates Development and Investments Co. Ltd., owned by the Church of England.

Six years ago, Rayne bought control of London Merchant Securities, a then moribund company. Under Rayne's guidance, the firm from 1960 to 1963 raised its after-tax profits from $75,000 to $1,000,000 and its assets to $50 million.

Help from the Lords. In one typically remarkable deal, Rayne bought a 5,000-acre plot in Scotland for $2,000,000, then sold off 82 acres of it for $1,500,000. Recently he bought the controlling shares in Britain's Hazell Sun printing company from Press Lords Cecil King and Roy Thomson, promptly merged with a competitor to produce Britain's biggest printing firm and a $5,600,000 profit for himself.

Now his properties, held through an intricate maze of subsidiaries, span from the world's largest Scotch distillery, at Invergordon, to major holdings in downtown Toronto. Rayne, who has every intention of expanding his U.S. beachhead, figures that the planned G.M. building may well cost about as much as Manhattan's Pan Am building. That structure, which was 45% financed by a consortium of other British real estate men, ran to $100 million.

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