Sir Alan Sugar is turning even further away from electronics in a bid to take his property empire to over £1bn.
In an interview in this week’s EG Sugar said: ”We’ve decided we want to make it a core business for the group rather than a peripheral one.”
The Amstrad millionaire has hired Steven Lewis as an executive director of Amsprop Estates to lead the expansion.
Lewis previously worked at Ladbroke Group Property Company and Burford.
Amsprop will start trading from a new West End office at 54 St James Street, SW1, on 3 July. It will be Sugar’s first presence outside Essex.
Sugar has an £800m fortune, according to The Sunday Times and EG Rich List complier Dr Philip Beresford, of which £480m is invested in property.
Sugar’s son Daniel will continue to invest Amsprop money in trophy buildings, while Lewis will be responsible for looking at other types of investments, particularly portfolios with asset management opportunities.
Sugar said: “We’ll look at any transaction warehousing, offices, whatever. And development situations. We might buy portfolios and then sell bits off.”
References: EGi News 19/06/06
