16 February 2004 – The Times
David Reuben, pictured above, and his brother Simon, are proof that you don’t have to be called Barclay to forge a successful fraternal business partnership. Their £350 million bid for Queens Moat Houses’ UK businesses is just one of several opportunities that the secretive brothers are looking at as they seek to boost their estimated £2 billion fortune. Most of their wealth, which earns them fifth spot in the 2003 Sunday Times Rich List, was made in the Russian aluminium industry, although these days they devote most of their energies to property. One of their biggest deals was the £120 million purchase of Millbank Town, and they are also putting £140 million into Elliott Bernerd’s bid for Chelsfield in return for a 35.4 per cent stake.
Last year they expressed an interest in buying Selfridges, and they have secretly built up a near 9 per cent stake in Benchmark, the West End property investment firm. Although the brothers, both in their sixties, work on every deal together, the driving force is said to be Simon, the younger of the two, who directs operations from the South of France.