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EG Rich List 2007 Nos 403-447

403£45m

Eric Wright

Eric Wright Group

Eric Wright, 70, sold the high-profile Daresbury Park business park in Cheshire for £21m in June 2007. Wright’s Maple Grove subsidiary owned a 50% stake in the park, and will use the proceeds for a war chest allowing expansion elsewhere.

The Preston-based Eric Wright Group has been involved in a number of high-profile developments in the North West in recent times. Eric himself owns just over half of the Eric Wright Group’s parent, Henmead. The rest is owned by a charitable trust.

The group is worth perhaps £80m on the back of £5m profit and sales of £154m in 2005. It has £71m of net assets. Other assets add £5m to Wright’s wealth, taking him to £45m.

418£43m

Jerry Donovan

Irish & European Properties

Jerry Donovan owns and runs Irish & European Properties, a Dublin property group. Abbreviated accounts in 2005 showed over £42.7m net assets. We value Donovan, 64, at slightly above that level.

418£43m

John Elkington

Penhurst Properties

John Elkington, 44, owns Penhurst Properties, a London-based property investment company with net assets of about £30m.

Elkington founded the firm in 1987 with the purchase of one flat in Tooting, and then focused on acquiring properties in affluent parts of south-west London, including Battersea, Wimbledon and Fulham, especially during the recession period in the early 1990s.

This shrewd acquisition strategy has paid off with the sharp rise since then in the area’s asset values. The portfolio of over 250 properties now has a gross value of more than £60m.

While securing long-term lets for over half its residential properties with Notting Hill Housing, Penhurst has also ventured into the commercial arena, establishing business centres offering serviced accommodation in Tonbridge and Battersea.

Other property company assets and past hefty dividend receipts easily take Elkington to £43m.

420£42m

Lisa Voice & Family

Woolcastle

Lisa Voice, 54, started work when she left school at 15 and her father, property magnate Cecil Rosen, gave her a shop in Godalming, Surrey, worth £6,000. From this one shop she built up a residential property empire.

She divorced her late husband, Steve Voice, a music producer, in 2000. That cost her £7m, and he died of a heart attack in Miami shortly afterwards.

She was also the former partner of the late Billy Fury – Britain’s answer to Elvis – who died at her north London home in 1983.

Today, Voice is a property and music publishing magnate. Her Woolcastle operation had over £31m net assets in 2005-06. The business is owned by Voice and her trusts. In all, Voice is worth £42m, with £10m of personal property assets.

420£42m

Peter Stephenson and Family

Able UK

Peter Stephenson has won his battle to break up four redundant US Navy ships at his Hartlepool dry dock. The local council, which objected to his plans in 2004, has now withdrawn its objection in the light of new government guidelines. Work on refurbishing the dry dock begins in January 2008.

Stephenson is managing director of Able UK which, aside from this demolition work, also redevelops redundant industrial sites. It made a £557,000 loss in 2005, but it has nearly £40m of net assets.

We value the company on this figure. Stephenson, 60, and his family own all the shares in the business plus other assets and property. We value the family at £42m.

420£42m

Hugh Bourn & Family

Hugh Bourn Developments (Wragby)

It was the end of an era when Hugh Bourn Developments was sold to the quoted Kier Group for a cool £53.3m in September 2006. Set up over 30 years ago by a farming family led by 49-year-old Hugh Bourn, the Wragby-based company went from building a handful of homes a year to dozens a month.

It delivered estates of houses and regenerated areas of Lincolnshire, providing new family homes in traditional communities.

The business was owned by Bourn and his family, who should be worth around £42m after tax following the sale.

420£42m

Michael Coates & Family

HW Coates

Michael Coates, 62, is managing director of HW Coates, a family-owned property, farming and haulage group based in Leicestershire. In the year to November 2006, it made £2.9m profit on sales of £6m. It is easily worth its £29m net asset figure.

The Coates family also owns nearly half of Firmin Coates, a Kent-based warehousing and distribution business, which made nearly £2.9m profit on £14.4m sales in 2006. It has £24.2m net assets and we value the business on that figure. The Coates stake is worth £10.6m.

The family has farming interests through HW Coates and regularly wins prizes for best bulls at agricultural shows in the Midlands. In all, we value the Coates family at around £42m with other assets.

420£42m

Peter Deeley & Family

Deeley Group

Belgrade Plaza, a £130m development in Coventry, is attracting top-quality tenants ready for its completion in 2009. It is the most ambitious project yet by the Deeley Group, a local developer run by 65-year-old Peter Deeley.

The firm dates back to 1936 when his father, George Deeley, a bricklayer, moved to the area and won his first contract to build houses locally. Peter Deeley joined the company in 1958 and became MD six years later. He enlarged the business by acquisition.

In the 1970s he developed Coventry’s Binley Business Park and in the 1990s the city’s only retail park, called Central Six. The family-owned operation made £2.2m profit on £26m sales in 2005-06 when its net assets hit nearly £42m. We value the business and the Deeley family at £42m.

420£42m

Richard Ross & Family

Regentsmead

Richard Ross, 64, chairs Regentsmead, a north London-based property group, founded in 1991. He owns 47% directly. We presume his family also owns the rest held in trust.

Regentsmead made nearly £3.7m profit on £36.6m sales in 2005-06. It also has nearly £41m net assets. We value the Ross family on the net asset figure. We can also see another £1m in other Ross companies such as Waygrove Properties. In all, we reckon the Ross family is worth £42m.

426£41m

Martin & Louisa Morgan

Oth

Martin Morgan, 45, and his wife Louisa, 40, founded the Original Travel House in 1992. Using teletext and through 22 shops it specialises in last-minute bargain holidays.

Morgan left school at 16 with five O-levels and started welding. He later became a holiday rep before opening his first shop in his native Swansea.

In 1999, he sold the business for around £40m. The proceeds have been invested in property and the Morgans own Oth Ltd, which made £66,000 profit and showed £41m net assets in 2005.

426£41m

Lord Mostyn & Family

Mostyn Estates

The sixth baron succeeded to the title in June 2000. He is a major landowner in North Wales and the family owns vast tracts of Llandudno. Mostyn Estates, his property company, had net assets of £40.3m in 2005-06. It has no borrowings and is worth its net assets. Lord Mostyn, 59, is only life tenant of the estate, which has been passed on to the next generation. We value the family at £41m.

428£40m

Ronald Barrott

Stannifer Group Holdings

Now busy developing Yas Island in Abu Dhabi, which will host its inaugural F1 Grand Prix in 2009, Ronald Barrott, 54, is chief executive of the local Aldar Properties operation. But in the Midlands and the North he is best known for his work at Stannifer Group, a West Midlands property operation.

The business established a strong reputation, particularly for retail development and, increasingly, for promoting mixed-use schemes in city-centre locations such as Bradford. It was founded in 1991 by Barrott, who was chief executive until 2005.

Chelsfield was originally granted options enabling it to acquire the companies known collectively as Stannifer in November 2002, and the two organisations worked together on a number of projects. The cost of exercising the options varies, but was about £65m. Before the Chelsfield move, Barrott had around half of Stannifer in his own name, so we assume his stake is worth around £30m.

In addition, he invested in the buyout of Chelsfield by a group of investors in early 2004. He had around 1% of the capital of their investment vehicle, Duelguide, which, in late 2004, was taken over in a £2.1bn bid by Westfield, the shopping centre owner, and the Reuben brothers. Barrott should have received at least £5.85m for his stake and will be worth at least £40m.

428£40m

Harry Handelsman

Manhattan Loft Corporation

Canadian Harry Handelsman is best known for his role in introducing the concept of loft living to wealthy young Londoners. In Clerkenwell, Soho, Shoreditch and West India Quay, Handelsman has developed lofts through his Manhattan Loft Corporation. He lives in one of his own creations – a £4m penthouse flat.

His most ambitious project is the £150m redevelopment of the former Midland Grand Hotel at St Pancras as a 245-bedroom hotel and 67 apartments, in association with London Continental Railways.

The Manhattan Loft Corporation’s two main British subsidiaries had £20m net assets in 2005. But with his profits from the loft work and other assets, Handlesman, 58, is worth £40m.

428£40m

David Aspin

Munroe K

Munroe K is the London-based development company which is behind the hugely successful White Rose office park on the outskirts of booming Leeds. The company is run and owned by David Aspin, 53, the former managing director of the Burwood House Group.

Munroe K developed a further 80,000 sq ft of space at the park, 5 miles from the centre of Leeds, and brought in two major tenants to join the likes of De Puy International, HSBC and the Inland Revenue. In the year to April 2005, Munroe K’s net assets soared to £37.1m and it made an £895,000 profit on £7m sales. It is easily worth £37m. We add another £3m for past salaries and other assets.

428£40m

Felicity Devonshire

Devonshire Investment Holdings

After splitting from her husband and business partner of 20 years, investor Felicity Devonshire, 58, bought an £87m property portfolio from insurer Marine & General Mutual. In January 2005, she acquired five industrial, retail and office sites. Her latest acquisition – a £30m commercial portfolio in February 2007 – brings Devonshire’s total investments to more than £180m in three years.

Her main company, Devonshire Investment Holdings, made £3.2m profit on £8.4m sales in 2005-06. Its subsidiary, West End Metropolitan, showed £26m net assets in 2005-06. Allowing for borrowings, we value Devonshire at around £40m.

428£40m

Patrick Hegarty & Family

WG Mitchell (Derry)

The Hegarty family from Derry, led by Patrick Hegarty, 46, owns WG Mitchell (Derry), a property developer. It has built up a £500m mixed property portfolio, including high-profile acquisitions such as the Quay leisure park in Glasgow and the Point Hotel in Edinburgh.

The company first made its name by investing in property in Northern Ireland in the 1960s, and it began investing in Scotland in 1997 with the acquisition of the Wardpark industrial estate in Cumbernauld.

WG Mitchell (Derry) showed £29m of net assets in its accounts for the year to May 2006. We value the Hegarty family on this figure, adding £11m for three separate WG Mitchell companies in Scotland.

428£40m

John Knight & Family

JL Knight Roadworks

Knight Developments is a Colchester developer of upmarket homes that have won a string of awards. Recently, it has been working on developing redundant health sites in Colchester.

It was founded over 30 years ago and is 70% owned by one of its directors, John Knight, 59.

In 2005-06, the company made £563,000 profit on £26.7m sales. But adding in most of the £3.6m directors’ pay takes the profit to perhaps £3.8m. That justifies a £20m valuation on the company, putting Knight’s stake at £14m.

He also has a 94% stake in the separate JL Knight Roadworks, a £25m company on the back of £3m profit and £29.4m sales in 2005-06. With other smaller stakes, the Knight family is worth £40m.

428£40m

Jonathan Maud

Rushbond

A £100m flagship development – known as Echo – is taking shape at the heart of regeneration plans for the Richmond Hill area of Leeds.

Local developer Rushbond – responsible for the£100m city centre Brewery Wharf regeneration scheme as well as the new BBC Building and Leeds College of Music – has joined forces with housebuilder Barratt (Leeds) to create the mixed-use project.

Rushbond is a Leeds developer which has led the way in the revival of Leeds city centre. Founded in 1986 by 47-year-old Jonathan Maud, its MD, Rushbond specialises in converting listed buildings. Maud owns all of the fast-growing operation. Rushbond saw its profits rise sharply in 2006 from £2.3m to £7.7m, while its net assets rose sharply to £33.6m. We value it and Maud at around £40m.

428£40m

Charles Lousada & Family

Lousada

Charles Lousada founded his property company, Lousada plc, in 1969 and was in the news in the early 1990s when he took over the Invest In Britain campaign. New developments in areas such as an old Kidderminster carpet factory were in the news in 2003.

Lousada, 69, made £8.1m profit in the year to September 2006. But we value it on its £39.3m net assets. It is owned by the Lousada family. Other assets, including a stake in Telford Property, add £700,000 to the family wealth.

428£40m

Michael McCarthy

Rightacres Property Co

Rightacres Property Co, the Cardiff-based developer, is owned and run by its 65-year-old managing director, Michael McCarthy.

Founded in 1967, the company has developed more than 2m sq ft of offices, shops, leisure and industrial space since then.

These days it is perhaps best known for its work on Callaghan Square, a 500,000 sq ft development programme by Rightacres and MEPC to create a central business district between Cardiff Bay and the city centre.

The scheme is benefiting from Cardiff’s shortage of good quality stock and should achieve a new record headline rent of £20 per sq ft on the latest 165,000 sq ft phase of development.

Rightacres made £1.8m profit on £5.1m sales in 2006. It shows nearly £25m net assets. With other business interests and the new schemes under way, McCarthy is easily worth £40m.

428£40m

Jim Moore & Family

Inside Track Seminars

Based in Spain, Jim Moore set up Inside Track Seminars in 2001 to promote and advise on buy-to-let properties.

A marketing man, 46-years-old Moore has seen the profits of Inside Track and its related company, Instant Access Properties, soar to over £12.2m on £70m sales in 2005-06.

Inside Track has had 40,000 people attending its free workshops while Instant Access provides one-stop shops for investors in property. Moore has appointed advisers to examine a trade sale or a flotation of the Kingston-on-Thames-based operations. In 2005, there was a £150m sale or flotation price mooted. But it was recently valued at £80m. Moore and his family trusts have a stake worth £40m at that price.

428£40m

Brad Rosser

Inside Track Seminars

A former assistant to Alan Bond – the Aussie tycoon – Brad Rosser later worked for McKinsey, the management consultancy. He then became corporate development director for Sir Richard Branson’s Virgin Group. Today, he runs two property-related ventures.

The profits of Inside Track and its related company, Instant Access Properties, soared to over £12.2m on £70m sales in 2005-06. Inside Track provides free workshops, and Instant Access provides one-stop shops for investors in property.

Rosser, 44, and his co-owner, Jim Moore, have appointed advisers to examine a trade sale or a flotation of the Kingston-on-Thames-based operations.

A £150m sale or flotation price was mooted in 2005. But it is now reckoned to be worth £80m, valuing Rosser’s stake at £40m.

428£40m

Tony Stevens

Planned Maintenance Engineering

Tony Stevens was an orphan who grew up in poverty and joined the Merchant Navy. Then, in 1962, he spotted a gap in the market for a business and founded Planned Maintenance Engineering.

The London-based operation started by maintaining pipes, boilers and air-conditioning, but now provides a much broader range of services for 40,000 UK buildings at airports, shops, offices and thousands of homes.

In 2003, Planned Maintenance made £1.6m profit on £136m sales. Stevens, 81, who was once so poor he had to sell his blood to finance his beer, now likes chunky jewellery. The business was sold to Carillion, the engineering and construction group, in March 2005, netting Stevens around £40m for his stake.

440£39m

Crispin Kelly & Family

Baylight Properties

A former president of the Architects Association, Irishman Crispin Kelly, 51, runs and owns Baylight Properties, which was started in 1982. The Fulham-based firm turned in a £1m profit on £2.4m sales in 2005. But it does have nearly £32m of net assets and we value the business on that figure. The Kelly family also owns most of Nelsonville, a separate property group with over £6.3m of net assets in 2005. In all, the Kelly family should easily be worth £39m.

440£39m

John Deane

O’Callaghan Properties

Cork property developer and solicitor John Deane, 57, has a stake in the local O’Callaghan Properties operation via Elendale Investments. Elendale also has a stake in Barkhill, the company behind the development of the Liffey Valley Shopping Centre in Dublin. In 2005-06, Barkhill showed £32.4m net assets. The Grosvenor Group is also a partner in Barkhill, which plans to develop a further 100 acres of land adjacent to Liffey Valley, zoned town centre by South Dublin county council. A masterplan for this development is being worked on. Deane’s stake and other assets take him to £39m.

442£38m

Laurence & James Grant

Martin Grant (Holdings)

Laurence and James Grant, aged 53 and 50, run Martin Grant (Holdings), a Dorking-based property-to-farming group, known in Surrey for its development work. Founded in 1978, the business made a £1.9m loss on £31.8m sales in 2005 when its net assets rose to nearly £35m. We value the business on the net asset figure. The Grant family owns it all directly or via trusts. We can also see several smaller companies with around £2.5m of net assets attributable to the Grant family. In all, the family should easily be worth £38m.

442£38m

Clifton Ibbett & Family

Bedfordia Group

Bedfordia Group’s exceptional profits of £19m in 2005 were not repeated in 2006, when it turned in a £1.4m loss on £72.4m sales. Net assets fell slightly to £31.8m. In 2005, it sold farmland outside Bedford for housing development. The group has a range of interests from property and farming to car dealing. Among its interests is one of the largest grain silos in Europe. We value the business on its net asset figure. The company is owned by the low-key Ibbett family, led by chairman Clifton Ibbett, 70. Other assets and past dividends take the family to perhaps £38m.

442£38m

Roy Williams

Cardinal Group

Roy Williams, 66, is a director of a number of London-based property companies in which he has significant stakes.

His stake in Cardinal Group is worth one-third of its £57.5m net assets in 2004-05, and he has a similar 33.3% stake in Cardinal Lysander, with £42.35m of net assets. To this £33m, we add another £5m for other stakes (£2.5m in Barbridge Ltd) and various property assets, taking Williams to at least £38m.

445£37m

David Dangoor & Family

Monopro

David Dangoor, 58, is managing director of Monopro, a family-dominated property company based in London. The Dangoor family has at least 73% of the shares. In the year to June 2006, Monopro made £1.7m profit on £3.1m sales. We value the business on its £46.7m net assets – that puts a £34m value on the family stake. But a number of other small companies, such as Discdale Ltd, add perhaps another £3m, taking the Dangoor family to £37m.

445£37m

Matthew Faherty & Family

Overcourt

London property company Overcourt saw its profits rise sharply from £273,000 to £3.6m on £5.4m sales in 2005-06. Matthew Faherty, 58, is finance director and a member of the controlling family that owns the business. We value the company on its £27.4m net assets. The family also owns three other companies which add £9.3m of net assets. Cautiously, we value the Faherty family at £37m.

447£36m

Henry Cohen & Family

Emco Estates Holdings

Henry Cohen is a director of Emco Estates, a fast-growing Leeds property company. In the year to March 2006, Emco made a £725,000 loss on £3.1m sales, but its net assets rose sharply from £30m to over £35.5m. We value the company on the latest net asset figure. Forty-six-year-old Cohen and his family trusts own the company and we value the family on the net asset figure. In all, the Cohens should be worth £36m.

447£36m

Mel Cooper & Family

Mountcharm

Mel Cooper and his family own and run Mountcharm, a property investment company in Barnet. In September 2004, it sold an £80m portfolio to a private syndicate. The net assets of Mountcharm came in at £31.2m in 2005. Other smaller assets add another £4m. After the portfolio sale, Cooper, 66, said that he was exploring reinvesting the money outside the UK, as well as perhaps investing in larger lot sizes of around £100m-£200m. In May 2006, they bought a prestige building in Tel Aviv. We value the Cooper family at perhaps £36m with other assets.

447£36m

Nicholas Furlong & Family

Melcorpo

Dublin-based Pilton, a distributor of DVDs and computer games, was taken over in June 2005 for £15m with a further £14m in payouts over the next three years if profit targets are met. This meant a big payday for accountant Nicholas Furlong, 60, who, with family interests, has been most closely associated with Pilton’s development. With 93% of the shares, the Furlong family will have received £14m initially. They also have a £19m stake in Melcorpo, a Dublin property group. We value the Furlong family at £36m.

447£36m

Jason Hayes

APS Property Group

In 1987, APS Property Group was founded in Hull, specialising in student accommodation. It is run and owned by Jason Hayes, 35. In 2000, he took over APS Student Services as managing director. Today, it is busy in the Humber and East Midlands areas, having expanded into Lincoln (where it is building the £7m Hayes Towers) and Loughborough. It also recently secured a £17m funding deal from Swedish bank Handelsbanken. Hayes owns all the business, renamed Clubeasy Group. It made a £445,000 loss on £5.1m sales in the year to July 2006, but its net assets rose from £30.6m to £35.6m. To these, we add £600,000 for Hayes’ stake in the separate APS Properties. He is worth £36m.

447£36m

Joseph Higgins

Coltard

Joseph Higgins grossed at least £29m when Higgins Turnkey, his Galway engineering company, was taken over by a US firm. He then invested in Coltard, a property company. He has a £24m stake in Coltard, owner of the Dun Laoghaire shopping centre, and other extensive assets. In all, we value Higgins, 58, at £36m.

447£36m

Garrett Kenny

Feltrim Developments

In 1996, Garrett Kenny took a break from running his transport and warehousing business in Dublin and went to Florida to buy a second home. Now his US-based company, Feltrim Developments, controls projects worth £450m. Kenny had been holidaying in Florida every year since 1985, and felt the property market there offered plenty of potential. Eleven years on, he lives there full time, though he retains substantial property assets in the UK and Ireland. Kenny, 45, describes himself as a natural entrepreneur. His first foray into property came in 1990, when he established Feltrim and started acquiring land for warehousing. He developed industrial units and was involved in residential development in London Docklands. In all, he is now easily worth £36m.

447£36m

Martin Oestreicher & Family

Moledene

Martin Oestreicher, 79, is a very low-key property man based in London. His family owns half of Moledene, a commercial property operation. Founded in 1974, it showed £60.5m net assets and we value the business on this figure. That means the Oestreicher family stake is worth around £30m. Other assets should take them to £36m.

447£36m

John Ray

Ashley Group

John Ray, 59, hails from Yarmouth and worked as a ship’s painter. In the mid-1970s, he started Rigblast, an engineering and maintenance company serving the North Sea oil industry. Though he sold part of the operation to a £15m management buyout in 1996, he retains important business interests. He owns most of the Ashley Group, a property to offshore services and transport group which made a £4.8m profit on £44m sales in 2005. It is easily worth its £24m net assets, and Ray has an 80% stake. With the £6m net assets of his separate JPR Services added, he should easily be worth £36m.

447£36m

Harry Schimmel & Family

Moledene

Harry Schimmel, 79, is a property man based in London. His family owns half of Moledene, a commercial property operation in Euston. Founded in 1974, Moledene showed £60.5m net assets in its 2005-06 accounts and we value it on this figure, putting the Schimmel family stake at around £30m. We believe this could be a significant undervaluation but lack the results to show other holdings. We conservatively put the family at £36m.

447£36m

Dominic & Tiffany Wainford

Wainford Holdings

Dominic and Tiffany Wainford, aged 40 and 42, own and run Wainford Holdings, a south London property company. The 2005-06 accounts show a small profit of £146,000 on £1.9m sales but net assets shot up from £28.9m to £35.3m. We value the company on its net assets, and the Wainfords own a 100% stake. Other assets should take the family to £36m.







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