Board rift divides Mission Capital

A bitter legal row has broken out involving property stalwarts Elliott Bernerd, Neil Sinclair and lawyer Robert Burrow.   The dispute centres on the future direction of Mission Capital, the AIM-listed property investment vehicle founded by Sinclair and daughter Emma.   Sinclair and his daughter, who were chairman and managing director respectively, were ousted on 5 February by their three non-executive directors: Burrow, Michael Guthrie and Giuseppe Ciardi. It is understood that they refused to leave the Piccadilly office.   The row has ended up in the high court. After a hearing on Wednesday, Mission said the Sinclairs’ employment “was lawfully terminated.   They were asked to leave the building and hand over company property. They refused, and a court injunction was served on them to leave the building and return company property. They have now complied with this order”.   The Sinclairs will now fight to be restored to the board. They were granted permission by the judge to keep copies of any documents relevant to their case.   The Sinclairs will argue that Burrow is conflicted because he is also a director in Bernerd’s Chelsfield Partners, which has a jv with Mission.   That jv – Athens – was formed in 2006 to buy a UK portfolio for £36m. The source said that a row had blown up over its future and its value.   A spokeswoman for the Sinclairs said: “We believe the Sinclairs’ contracts were terminated because they voiced their belief that Robert Burrow, as a partner of Chelsfield and non-executive director of Mission Capital, had a significant conflict of interest.”   Sinclair, well-known for running the Variety Club PROPS Awards, founded Mission in 2005, raising £3m. Mission reported a pretax loss of £211,080 for the six months to 31 March 2007 on gross revenues of £2.8m.   The Sinclairs own just under 10% of Mission, Burrow 10.25% and a vehicle controlled by Bernerd 9.7%. Former RICS president Christopher Jonas owns 3.64%.   julia.cahill@rbi.co.uk