Hunter nets £20m from property sale to Land Secs

Sir Tom Hunter, the Scottish entrepreneur who was knighted last weekend, scooped an estimated £20m yesterday after his private equity outfit sold one of its retail property portfolios to Land Securities.

Sir Tom Hunter, the Scottish entrepreneur who was knighted last weekend, scooped an estimated £20m yesterday after his private equity outfit sold one of its retail property portfolios to Land Securities.

Although Sir Tom's West Coast Capital was not the biggest investor in LXB Properties, it netted the biggest share of the £360m cash deal because it had the most preference shares.

HBOS's Bank of Scotland had a 28 per cent stake in LXB, the management team had about a quarter of the shares and Iceland's Baugur had the remaining 10 per cent. A source close to the deal said the four shareholders made an estimated £50m gain, adding: "The management team was very well incentivised with preference shares."

Mr Hunter's windfall comes less than 72 hours after he received a potentially contentious knighthood. Scotland's richest man, who made his name with the £290m sale of his Sports Division chain in 1998, was honoured for his services to entrepreneurship in Scotland and for his philanthropy.

But cynics pointed out that Mr Hunter, who is worth around £700m, made a potentially more influential donation, a £100,000 payment to the Labour Party in 2001. His philanthropy is conducted at the highest profile: he is co-organising Scotland's own Live8 concert with Bob Geldof, which will coincide with the G8 meeting in July.

Mr Hunter's colleague Chris Gorman was made a CBE at the weekend. Mr Gorman's award was made for services to business.

The irony of the timing of the duo's accolades did not escape observers, coming just weeks after one of their most high-profile joint investments ended in corporate ruin, financial loss and an impending court case.

The failure of the Gadget Shop cost 700 employees their jobs. The chain went under after a dispute between its four owners resulted in an impasse over the potential sale of the group. Sir Tom and Mr Gorman are due to meet Jon Wood, a UBS trader, and Peter Wilkinson, the Freeserve designer, in court later this year over the row.

Another observer pointed out that the Queen's birthday honours list gets drawn up at least six months in advance. He said: "At that point Mr Gorman may well have been riding high. The Gadget Shop was still trading then."

Land Securities is buying all of LXB's 14 assets, including out-of-town retail parks in Bracknell and Chester.