HBOS owed £450m by Apprentice star's property empire

HBOS owed £450m by Apprentice star's property empire




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It has been reported that the failed property empire of businessman Paul Kemsley, best known for appearing on television show The Apprentice as one of Sir Alan Sugar’s guest interrogators, could cost HBOS nearly £450 million. 

Mr Kemsley’s Rock empire fell into administration in May this year, after becoming another victim of tumbling commercial property values.

 

According to the appointed administrators, PricewaterhouseCoopers, HBOS and one of its subsidiaries, Uberior, are owed £305 million by Rock Joint Ventures. Another business in the Rock empire, Rock Investment Holdings, also owed £127 million to the bank.

 

However, company directors have warned creditors that they are unable to attribute a value that could be realised from sales of its property portfolio, saying that property markets are still too unstable.

 

Administrators added that it could take a “number of years” to secure value from the portfolio. They also warned that the business could not be rescued, due to the turmoil in the property markets and the huge debts the empire has racked up. Unsecured creditors are said to be “unlikely” to receive anything.

 

Rock Investments was founded in 1995 by Mr Kemsley and once had a property portfolio of £850 million, with assets including Selhurst Park football ground in the UK and a number of offices on New York’s Fifth Avenue in the US.

 

Mr Kemsley resigned as director on the day the empire fell into administration.

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