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Sir David Barclay and Sir Frederick Barclay (both born on 27 October 1934) are British businessmen. The identical twin brothers have very substantial business interests primarily in media, retail and property. The Sunday Times Rich List of 2007 estimated their wealth at £1.8 billion. They have earned a reputation for avoiding publicity, and are often described as reclusive. Sir David's son Aidan Barclay, manages their UK businesses. Their Press Holdings company owns The Business and The Spectator magazine. The Telegraph Group Limited titles are controlled via a wholly owned subsidiary Press Acquisitions Limited.[1]
[edit] BiographyThe Barclay brothers were born within ten minutes of each other in London to Scottish parents who had ten children. Their father died when they were twelve and they left school four years later to work in the accounts department at General Electric before doing a stint as painters and decorators. By 1962 they started redeveloping old boarding houses in London and making them into hotels. In 1975, they bought the Howard Hotel, overlooking the Thames at Temple Place. In 1983 they bought Ellerman, the brewing and shipping group for £45m. They later sold its brewing division for £240m. They used the proceeds to buy the Ritz Hotel in London's Piccadilly. They are reported to be close friends of Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, the Archbishop of Westminster. According to newspaper reports, the Cardinal has stayed at the Barclay brothers' home on the Channel Island of Brecqhou and is believed to have blessed the brothers' private chapel and said Mass for them there.[2] [edit] Retailing[edit] Purchase of LittlewoodsIn 2002, the brothers purchased the Liverpool based retail company Littlewoods from its founders the Moores family for £750m. The deal was bankrolled by HBOS, which also took a five percent equity stake in the brothers bidding vehicle, LW Investments. The brothers merged the company with Shop Direct to form Littlewoods Shop Direct Home Shopping Limited, which operates a majority share of the United Kingdom's home shopping market. They also closed and sold off the Littlewoods department store chain, with the largest parcel of 120 properties being purchased by Primark[1], while other stores were purchased by Marks & Spencer[2]. [edit] handbag.comIn October 2006, the Barclays sold handbag.com for £22 million. This was almost all profit: they set up the website in a joint venture with Boots in 1999.[3] [edit] Brecqhou (Home)
In 1993, the Barclay brothers bought the island of Brecqhou, one of the Channel Islands, located just west of Sark. Since the purchase the Barclays have been in several legal disputes with the government of Sark[4] over such issues as the Barclays' violation of Sark's law banning motor cars. They have also expressed a desire to make Brecqhou politically independent from Sark. Building on the research of William Toplis, the painter, and others, who argued that Brecqhou was not a part of the fief of Sark and challenging the applicability of Sark's inheritance laws to Brecqhou, the brothers have used their great wealth and consequent ability to litigate effectively to force change of Sark's legislation. This included a claim of denial of their human rights that resulted in a change to Sark's inheritance laws. Subsequently, the brothers have continued to challenge Sark's constitutional reform purportedly in favour of greater democracy. Their recent attempt to punish the Sark electorate for not voting for the Barclay preferred candidates has led to calls for the Barclay brothers to be stripped of their knighthoods.[citation needed] Their own mock-Gothic castle on Brecqhou, designed by Quinlan Terry, features 3ft granite walls, battlements, two swimming pools and a helicopter pad. The brothers are tax exiles, and give their address as Le Montaigne, 7 Avenue de Grande Bretagne, 98000 Monaco.[5] [edit] Charity workThe Barclays are philanthropists and were knighted in 2000 for their support to medical research, to which they have donated an estimated forty million pounds between 1987 and 2000. However their scrapping of the Littlewoods tradition of giving 1% of profits to charities has led to accusations of mean-spiritedness. [edit] WealthIn 2004, they were listed in 42nd place with an estimate of £750m on the Sunday Times Rich List, and in 2005, they were ranked 33rd with a value of £1.3 billion (USD $2.3 billion). [edit] Newspaper ownership[edit] The EuropeanIn 1992, they entered the newspaper publishing industry, buying the late Robert Maxwell's unsuccessful newspaper, The European. They have a reputation as hands-off owners. David Short, a journalist who previously worked on The European, said that he could offer no stories of "strong-armed interference, diktats, statesmannish grandiosity - zilch, nada, rien." However their executives, in particular Neil and Murdoch MacLennan, are controversial figures in journalistic circles. Critics said The European alienated readers when Neil transformed it from a Europhile newspaper into a Eurosceptic magazine. [edit] The ScotsmanIn 1995 they bought The Scotsman newspaper, and in 1996 appointed former The Sunday Times editor Andrew Neil to oversee their publishing interests. On 19 December 2005, the Barclays sold The Scotsman Publications Ltd., itself then part of Press Holdings Group, for £160 million to Johnston Press. The Barclays had owned these publications for a decade, and said they intend to use the capital raised on their other interests. During their ownership of The Scotsman the newspaper went through seven editors in nine years. [edit] Sunday BusinessIn 1998 they relaunched Sunday Business Newspaper with editor Jeff Randall. [edit] The TelegraphIn July 2004, they bought The Telegraph Group which includes The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Telegraph, and The Spectator after months of intense bidding and lawsuits. The Telegraph Group was owned by Hollinger Inc. of Toronto, Ontario, Canada, the newspaper group controlled by the Canadian-born British businessman/financier Lord Black of Crossharbour. The brothers' period as newspaper proprietors has been more tumultuous than their property interests. At the Telegraph Group, MacLennan made over 100 journalists redundant in 2006, prompting the National Union of Journalists to consider strike action. The Sunday Telegraph editor Dominic Lawson was replaced by Sarah Sands in June 2005 but lasted nine months. Patience Wheatcroft, from The Times was appointed editor in March 2006. [edit] PoliticsOn 11 December 2008, the Barclay brothers were in the news for pulling out their investments (which include hotels) from the island of Sark, causing 100 staff to be made redundant (one sixth of the workforce) and threatening the economic stability of the island after local voters did not support candidates championed by the Barclay brothers. The brothers had previously warned that if the voters chose to bring back the 'establishment' Sark leaders that are still aligned with the feudal lord then they would pull out of Sark.[6] [edit] References
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