David Rowland (property developer)

David Rowland
Born David John Rowland
(1945-06-16) 16 June 1945
Nationality British
Occupation property developer
Known for Conservative Party Treasurer
Net worth £692 million (2017)[1]

David Rowland (born 1945) is a British property developer.

Property career

Rowland took over other groups, issuing shares in his own company to pay for acquisitions. Eventually he sold his stake in Fordham for £2.4m in 1970, and moved to France.

In 1988, Rowland helped fund a lawyer, David Duff, in a takeover of Edinburgh Hibernian, parent company of Scottish Premier Division football club Hibernian. Eventually the company went into receivership.[2]

In 1991, Rowland sold his controlling interest to Nycal Corporation.[3] Over the following years, Gulf resorted to the American courts to recover company monies they alleged were spent by David Rowland, firstly via the courts[4] and then via their insurance company.[5] One case was settled (though no financial settlement was deemed necessary), while Gulf lost another.

In 2009, Kaupthing Bank, affected by the global liquidity squeeze was divided into two new entities, a ‘good, healthy’ bank, later Banque Havilland, and a ‘bad’ bank. David Rowland and his son Jonathan, via their investment company Blackfish Capital, acquired and recapitalized the former and now manage the assets, on behalf of the interbank creditors, of the latter.[6]

Conservative Party

In the year before the 2010 United Kingdom general election, Rowland donated £2.8m to the Conservative Party, making him the party’s major donor.[7] In 2010, he was announced as being the next Treasurer of the Conservative Party. After this announcement, the Daily Mail published a series of articles that were critical of him.[7] After public criticism of his former status as a tax exile, Rowland resigned before taking the position.[8] Rowland had lived in Guernsey, but returned to full United Kingdom residency in order to make donations to the Conservatives.[8] Electoral law in the United Kingdom prohibits foreign donations to political parties.[8][7] In August 2010, Rowland made another donation of £1 million to the Conservative Party.[9] In May 2017, he gave £200,000 to the Conservative Party.[10]

References

  1. ↑ "Sunday Times Rich List". Sunday Times (page 60). 7 May 2017.
  2. ↑ "Hibs chairman's revolution ended in club being open to hostile bid". Sport.scotsman.com. Retrieved 25 July 2013.
  3. ↑ "Washington Business Journal - Nycal tries to swallow firm 8 times its size". Accessmylibrary.com. 3 June 1991. Retrieved 25 July 2013.
  4. ↑ "Gulf USA vs. David Rowland 1997/8". Romingerlegal.com. Archived from the original on 11 March 2012. Retrieved 25 July 2013.
  5. ↑ "Gulf USA vs. Federal Insurance 2001". Ftp.resource.org. Archived from the original on 25 March 2012. Retrieved 25 July 2013.
  6. ↑ Ruddick, Graham (13 July 2009). "Rowland family open new bank". London: The Telegraph. Retrieved 25 July 2013.
  7. 1 2 3 Paul Lewis and Rob Evans (20 August 2010). "David Rowland: Multimillionaire who courted controversy throughout his rise | Politics". London: The Guardian. Retrieved 25 July 2013.
  8. 1 2 3 Allegra Stratton and Haroon Siddique (19 August 2010). "David Rowland: red faces at Tory HQ as next treasurer quits | Politics". London: The Guardian. Retrieved 25 July 2013.
  9. ↑ The Time – David Rowland gives more than 1m to Conservative Party – 27 August 2010
  10. ↑ Cahill, Helen (18 May 2017). "Party donors: Here are the big names bank-rolling the Conservative campaign". cityam.com. Retrieved 28 January 2018.
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