Roland Rowland; International Conglomerate Tycoon

Roland “Tiny” Rowland, a colorful tycoon who turned an unprofitable mining company in Rhodesia into a multibillion-dollar international conglomerate, has died at age 80.

Rowland had been suffering from skin cancer and died at the London Clinic, the Observer newspaper reported Sunday. Rowland owned the newspaper from 1979 to 1992.

The former head of Lonrho PLC built a personal fortune estimated by the British media at $250 million, owned homes in Britain and Mexico, and a yacht in the Mediterranean, where he was vacationing with his family when he became ill last week.

A spokesman for Lonrho Africa, a separate company that holds Lonrho’s trading interests in much of Africa, said he died Friday.

After World War II, Rowland bought two farms in Rhodesia. He branched into mining and became chief executive of the money-losing London and Rhodesian Mining and Land Co. in 1963.

Over the next 30 years, he turned Lonrho into a conglomerate with 1,000 subsidiaries in more than 60 countries, including manufacturing, publishing, oil, gas and shipping interests.

Rowland retired in 1995 after being ousted as head of Lonrho in a power struggle with Dieter Bock, his joint chief executive.

For much of the last 15 years, Rowland waged a bitter campaign against Mohamed Al Fayed, the Egyptian businessman who defeated him in a takeover battle for the retail chain that includes the London landmark Harrods.

Rowland is survived by his wife, Josie, a son and three daughters.