Founded in 1909 as the London and Rhodesia Mining and Land Company, or Lonrho, the company was rarely out of the news, especially in the Seventies when as a sanctions-buster throughout the period of Rhodesian prime minister Ian Smith's unilateral declaration of independence, which ran for 14 years from 1965, it drew the criticism of then UK prime minister, Edward Heath. He labelled Lonrho "… the ugly face of capitalism".