Famed for his pink sunglasses, Robert Tchenguiz was once the scourge of UK PLC.
In the boom years the former billionaire, who made his money in property with older brother Vincent, turned activist investor.
Before the credit crunch hit in 2007, Robert, 51, bought large stakes in supermarket chain J Sainsbury and the pubs operator Mitchells & Butlers, agitating for takeover bids or corporate restructuring.
However, after the Qatari-backed Delta Two’s £10.6 billion bid for Sainsbury’s fell at the final hurdle and M&B fended off his demands, Robert Tchenguiz was left with big stakes in the companies ahead of the financial crisis that sent global stock markets plunging.
The situation worsened. Robert Tchenguiz had used debt from Kaupthing to fund his stake-building and when the Icelandic lender’s own finances started to unwind, the banks seized his stakes at the bottom of the market, wiping more than a billion of his paper fortune.
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Robert Tchenguiz — Robbie to his friends — is the more flamboyant of the two brothers, hogging the headlines for his celebrity lifestyle and former relationship with American model Caprice Bouret.
He later married fitness instructor Heather Bird. The pair separated last year, but still live together with their two children in a huge four-storey mansion next to the Royal Albert Hall, which formerly housed the Royal College of Organists.
Friends of Robert Tchenguiz say the place is so big, they can live completely separate lives but still both spend time with their much-loved young boys. More cynical observers say Robert Tchenguiz’s fortune has been wiped out and the arrangement is a financial necessity.
Very much the family man, Robert Tchenguiz was infuriated by his younger sister Lisa’s treatment at the hands of her husband, former Del Monte tycoon Vivian Imerman.
Keeping it in the family, the Tchenguiz brothers shared their Mayfair offices with Mr Imerman and often co-invested with him.
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But when Robert Tchenguiz heard Mr Imerman and his sister were to separate, he seized papers belonging to his soon to be ex brother-in-law in an effort to stop him hiding his wealth from the divorce courts.
The incident was sparked when Lisa telephoned Robert Tchenguiz after her estranged husband seized the couple’s Rolls-Royce Phantom, which she had sent to the garage to have serviced. A judge later ordered Robert Tchenguiz to return the stolen papers.