Quiet man who's a big noise in London property

CHELSFIELD, the company behind some of London's most eye-catching developments, looks set to disappear from the stock market later this autumn through an £850m public-to-private deal. For its reclusive founder and chairman, Elliott Bernerd, the end of an unhappy decade in the quoted arena will come as a relief. Neither company nor boss have relished the spotlight that comes with life as a Plc, particularly in a sector that the City has never really warmed to since the great commercial property crash of the early 1990s.

Chelsfield, in which Bernerd and his family have a 12.5% share, is the backer of Paddington Basin, the proposed White City shopping centre and a new mini-city in Stratford to dwarf Canary Wharf. Attempting to take the company private has not been straightforward. Bernerd told the City of his intentions in May and on Monday set a six-week deadline to pull the deal off.

The move also comes after a struggle with throat cancer, now in remission. But for a man approaching retirement age who has not enjoyed the best of health, he is sanguine about completing a complex buyout deal. 'I've had harder things to deal with,' he says wryly. Strangely for a company behind so many face-changing London regeneration projects, Chelsfield is little known beyond the cosy inner sanctum of Britain's property rain-makers.

Unlike some in the property world - architecture's luvvie peers Rogers and Foster, for example - Bernerd's name is rarely mentioned outside those circles and the more rarefied worlds of music and art. A long-time benefactor of the South Bank and the Royal Philharmonic, Bernerd was chairman of both until his illness forced him to concentrate his energies on Chelsfield.

The buyout deal would value the Bernerd family's stake in the business at more than £100m - not that he needs the money. He has a collection of fine and modern art the Tate Modern would pay handsomely for. His spacious Chelsea home - open-planned and minimalist with high whitewashed walls the better to display his art - could fetch up to £10m. The opulently furnished self-designed home sits behind high black gates on a discreet road leading to the Thames.

However, there is no sign of this deal junkie slowing down. A couple of weeks' holidaying on the French Riviera saw no let-up to a frenzy of preparations for taking the company private. Long days and late nights have been taken up juggling his day job as Chelsfield's chairman with his moonlighting as the coordinator of a wealthy bid consortium of private investors. They in turn are being backed by powerful financial institutions led by HBOS but also likely to include RBS and Barclays.

Any suggestion that he should leave executive duties to the chief executive - as mooted in the recent Higgs Report on corporate governance - clearly falls on deaf ears. The past few months have sealed his reputation for being 'highly controlling' as one Chelsfield insider describes him.

'There is nothing hands-off about him,' said the insider. 'He is very meticulous. Nothing either financial or operational gets done without Elliott combing through the fine detail. Chelsfield is his baby.'

Bernerd's hands-on approach to running the company, for which he is paid more than £500,000 a year, is hardly surprising given his close personal connections with a core of wealthy investor partners who have helped build up the company. Their support is also vital if he is to take Chelsfield back into private hands. Backers include 9% shareholder Lubna Olayan, a member of a billionaire Saudi-based family, and Israeli diamond magnate Beny Steinmetz, who has built up a 7.8% stake since December.

Bernerd is finalising details for a new equity investor to replace old friend Nina Wang, the Hong Kong billionaire and 12.3% shareholder, who he says 'will not be participating in the buyout'. The secretive Reuben brothers are thought to be interested in investing about £100m.

Property pundits earlier this year questioned whether Bernerd still had the strength to chair Chelsfield, let alone take it private, after his brush with cancer. Pointing to his pristine private gym and sporting a healthy tan, Bernerd simply shrugs.

HOW A HIGH-FLIER DEVELOPED

1962: Bernerd started work at 16 for niche London property estate agent, becoming a partner at 21, and made a series of small West End property investments.

1983: Set up Stockley Group with help of Lord (Jacob) Rothschild, Morgan Grenfell's Roger Seelig and developer Stuart Lipton. Bought Stockley Business Park for £8m.

1987: Stockley Group sold for £365m, netting Bernerd £20m.

1990: Joint venture between Bernerd's new vehicle Chelsfield and P&O buys Laing Properties for £492m.

1992: Joint venture unwound, Chelsfield refinanced with capital injection from P&O and British Land.

1993: Chelsfield floats on Stock Exchange.

2003: Bernerd plans to lead buyout of Chelsfield.

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