City Diary - The Telegraph
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Tchenguiz in line to buy Chesterton

Vincent Tchenguiz is likely to emerge as one of the new owners of the historic Chesterton estate agency, after the sale of the brand and residential side to a private equity fund yesterday. The property billionaire is associated with the £900,000 purchase of the residential business by CIC International, according to three sources, and is considering joining the investors. Chesterton's residential business is said to have annual revenue of £15m and no debt.

A former Chesterton owner, Mohammed Jafari-Fini, unsuccessfully sought to block the sale in the High Court yesterday and threatened to sue receivers Grant Thornton for selling the business too cheaply. Grant Thornton declined to comment. "I have lost about £5m on Chesterton and I am claiming damages of £20m," Mr Jafari-Fini said. "You could have sold it for £35m [two years ago.]" The managing director of Chesterton's residential arm, David Taylor, will remain in charge. All 200 staff will keep their jobs in the firm, which sells property worth more than £500,000. "In the past two years, the division has been turned from being loss making into a profitable operation," CIC said.

Part of Chesterton's commercial business was yesterday sold to the real estate arm of French bank BNP Paribas, Atis Real. The business was profitable and generated £10m in revenue in the 12 months to June, 2004, it said. Atis Real workmen yesterday replaced signage and stationery at Chesterton offices in the City of London, Southampton, Cardiff, Newcastle and Leeds. About 30pc of the staff will join the French company. "The business is people and you need to move quite quickly to make sure the key people aren't lured away by competitors," said Atisreal UK marketing director Nigel Higgins.

The head of Chesterton's Docklands office, Rupert Cherryman, said he would launch his own firm with his head of residential development, Bob Ashton.

The company's asset management arm has yet to be sold. Chesterton was placed into receivership on Monday, 200 years after it was founded. Originally a family owned business and then a professional partnership, it was floated in 1994 and taken private in March 2004. Financier Resurge owned 87pc of the equity and has a £7m debt associated with the holding. It said this week the sum "cannot be paid" because of Chesterton's failure, and is in negotiations to restructure the debt. Resurge's Aim shares have been suspended at 1.12p.

Edited by Aaron Patrick
(Filed: 12/03/2005)