Barclay

English entrepreneurs. The twin brothers started to invest in the property market in the early 1960s and have built up a business empire with interests in property, hotels, newspapers, and finance. Their highest profile assets include the Ritz Hotel, bought in 1995, and the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph newspapers and Spectator magazine, bought in 2004.

Traditionally the Barclays are long-term value investors, buying underperforming private companies through their offshore holding companies. Although they have largely avoided direct investment in public companies, they held a brief stake in the casino operator London Clubs International (1994–95), and in 2000 took a £3 million stake in the Internet investment group Jellyworks. Described in the press as reclusive, the Barclays maintain a low profile and own a private retreat on Brechou Island, near Sark, in the Channel Islands. The Sunday Times Rich List 2008 estimated their net worth at £1.7 billion. The twins were knighted in 2000 in recognition of charitable services.

Having started working in the accounts department of General Electric, the Barclays moved into construction and then became estate agents, investing in west London properties. Surviving the 1970s property crash, they invested in hotels, including the Howard Hotel in London in 1975, which they sold for £38 million in 2000.

Other long-term value investments have included Ellerman Investments in 1982, a former shipping line which became a holding company for the hotel interests; the Gotaas-Larsen shipping line, bought for £370 million in 1988 and sold for £465 million in 1997, and the multi-franchise motor dealer Automotive Financial Group, which also included a financial services company, bought for £200 million in 1994 from the former head of Nissan UK, Romanian-born executive Octav Botnar.

Having started a £30 million refurbishment programme for the Ritz Hotel in 1995, the Barclays also built up their media interests by acquiring the Scotsman for £85 million – which they re-launched in 2000, accompanied by a cut in the cover price – and Sunday Business, bought from the receivers in 1997. The European, bought in 1992 from the administrators of the late English publishing entrepreneur Robert Maxwell, was closed down in 1998; although it had been re-launched that year as an Economist-style weekly for business executives, its circulation collapsed with estimated cumulative losses of £79 million. In 2000 the Barclays failed in their £75 million bid to buy the Express newspaper titles from English business executive Clive Hollick, and in 2005 they sold the Scotsman and Scotland on Sunday newspapers. In 2006 they relaunched Sunday Business (bought in 1997) as the Business Magazine, but in 2008 announced that it would close and be replaced by a new title, the Spectator Business.

Although they have made few direct investments in public companies, they have provided funds for buy outs. For example, they backed UK retail entrepreneur Philip Green's £550 million bid to break up the Sears retail chain in 1999, with a 20% stake in January Investments, the vehicle used to make the bid. In 2002 the brothers bought the privately-owned Littlewoods high street department store chain, but sold it in 2005 to Associated British Foods for £409 million.

Having bought the Sark landholding for a reported £2.3 million in 1993, they built a £60 million castle there. In 1997 they successfully sued a journalist for invading their privacy on the island. In 1999 they won an amendment to the 400-year-old laws of inheritance to allow younger sons or daughters to inherit property.