August 24, 2012 3:21 am
One of Britain’s biggest property tycoons is now only allowed £500 a week in living expenses, according to a Guernsey court order.
Glenn Maud, who owns stakes in trophy assets such as the Citi Tower in Canary Wharf and the global headquarters of Banco Santander in Madrid, has also had his worldwide assets frozen. His company, Propinvest, collapsed in November last year and is now under administration by Grant Thornton.
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ON THIS STORY
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IN PROPERTY
The case is the latest twist in a long-running saga engulfing Mr Maud, a former Sheffield lawyer who now lives near Gstaad in Switzerland, where he is immune from the Guernsey expenses restrictions. Once a poster boy for the property boom, Mr Maud has seen his £4.5bn empire crumble as market values tumbled during the recession.
The freezing order was made against Mr Maud, fellow Propinvest director Timothy Southern, Navarro Ventures Sarl and Many Fathers Limited on Monday. A day later Deloitte were appointed as administrators to four Propinvest companies that control the‘Gemini’ portfolio of 35 commercial properties.
These properties, which were most recently valued at £437.5m in March 2012, secured £998.5m of loans. The court order also relates to a number of other companies owned by Propinvest and permits the administrators access to their electronic records.
Propinvest, whose empire once stretched from Europe to Tokyo, is planning to contest the court order as early as next week and said the order was unenforceable outside Guernsey. It said it had no advance warning of the legal proceedings and had previously co-operated.
“We are shocked and disappointed at the approach taken by Grant Thornton,” the company said. “Propinvest has instructed its lawyers and will be vigorously contesting the application and seeking that it be overturned at the earliest opportunity. PGL has always conducted its business in a proper and appropriate manner and in the best interest of all stakeholders. It has sought the advice and supervision of leading lawyers, accountants and tax advisers for all initiatives taken”.
Jamie Toynton, director of Grant Thornton Channel Islands, who is acting as joint administrator of Propinvest, said: “Following the administration order over Propinvest Group Limited in November 2011, the joint administrators have been undertaking an investigation into the financial affairs of the company. The applications we have made to the Guernsey Court result from these investigations and, as these matters are now before the Court, it would be inappropriate for us to comment further at this time.”
Mr Maud is also involved in litigation over the €1.9bn purchase of Santander’s Madrid headquarters. When Derek Quinlan, the Irish investor, and Mr Maud purchased the banking campus in 2008, it was the biggest single-asset deal in European property history.
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