An index of the wealthiest UK property magnates has revealed the personal fortunes of a raft of individuals with interests in pub and restaurant assets.
The list, compiled by commercial property magazine Estates Gazette, features the billionaire Reuben brothers, Mark Pears, Trevor Hemmings, Robert Tchenguiz, David Lyons among the top 350.
The Reuben brothers, who recently acquired the Wellington Pub Company for £400m from Hugh Osmond, are placed near the very top with an estimated wealth of £2.2bn. They are second only to the Duke of Westminster (£5.2bn).
Mark Pears, chief executive of William Pears Family Holdings, is eighth in the list with £800m. Pears’ organisation backs Alan Bowes’ London & Edinburgh group, which operates hotels and an estate of managed and tenanted pubs.
Trevor Hemmings, the Lancashire entrepreneur who owns the Pub Estate Company (now renamed Trust Inns) and Blackpool is tenth in the list of property’s richest individuals with £700m.
He is followed by Paul Raymond, whose Raymond Revue Bar in Soho, recently collapsed into administration, is 13th with £600m.
Tom Hunter, the Scottish retail entrepreneur, is 20th with £500m. Hunter’s West Coast Capital recently acquired a stake in the freeholds of 220 pubs operated by Spirit Group.
Further down at 29th are Robert and Vincent Tchenguiz of the Rotch Property Group. Rotch was a 34% shareholder in Pubmaster, the tenanted pub group that was sold to Punch last November in a deal valued at £1.2bn. It made a £58m profit on the disposal.
Gerald Ronson, who owns Heron Corporation and who was embroiled in the infamous Guinness shares scandal in the 1980s, is 47th with £245m.
Nigel Wray of Prestbury Investment Holdings is 89th with £100m. Wray and partner Nick Leslau, who is further down the list (157th with £50m), acquired a stake in a 220-strong portfolio of pubs operated by Spirit, along with Tom Hunter.
Dawnay Day financiers Peter Klimt and Guy Naggar, who recently bought Paramount Hotels for £215m from Alchemy and are in the midst of a deal to take restaurant group Paramount private, are placed joint 97th with £95m each.
David Coffer, who owns a substantial stake in Davis Coffer Lyons, the property agent that has a significant presence in the licensed sector, was further down the list with a personal wealth of £12m. Coffer is now heavily involved in the Earls Court exhibition centre - his investment operation St James Capital teamed up with Nomura International to buy the centre in May for £245m. The report’s authors say: "Some say this is a big undervaluation, but we await proof."
