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In a desperate effort to pare down the debt, Fimpar, the Aga Khan's holding company, planned to raise $200 million on the Milan stock exchange. But the Gulf War scared off investors, and the plans had to be dropped. Finally, the Aga Khan hired Goldman Sachs last year to sell off some of Ciga's lesser hotels in hopes of raising roughly $175 million to repay loans and stanch losses. One of the few buyers that stepped forward was Situr, an Italian property group, but before a deal could be struck, Situr alleged that Ciga's books contained serious irregularities and dropped out of the negotiations.
Shares of Ciga remained frozen on the Milan stock exchange last week as the hotel company reported losses of $173 million for 1992. Yet because he deftly avoided putting any of his private fortune of about $1.4 billion on the line to bail out Ciga, Prince Karim remains one of the world's richest men. He may thus become the first in his line to be in financial trouble despite being worth his weight in diamonds.