28 June 2015 – Sunday Times

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Billionaire brothers David and Simon Reuben have bought three miles of prime beachfront in Ibiza for £25m, including the Sunset Ashram beach bar and restaurant.

The property tycoons, whose empire stretches from Global Switch data centres to Ascot racecourse, sealed the purchase of 16m sq ft of land in the southwest of the party island from a Spanish family last week. The deal, carried out through a subsidiary of their Aldersgate Investments company, comprises three plots: Cala Bassa, Cala Conta — home to Sunset Ashram and famous for its views — and Es Penyal. Ibiza’s authorities are understood to have granted the Gallart Sans family planning permission to redevelop the sites, although it has now lapsed.

This month the septuagenarian brothers bought £550m of debt backing the Grosvenor House hotel in London and two other resorts in America from Bank of China. The debt purchase gives the Reubens a say in the future of the hotels, which are nominally owned by Subrata Roy, a controversial Indian billionaire. Roy is in jail over his Sahara Group’s alleged failure to refund billions of dollars to investors in a bond programme.

They have also entered an offer for a Mayfair car park, the sale of which has been seen as the latest evidence of London’s toppy property market. Savills and DTZ, the agents selling the Carrington Street NCP on behalf of the American private equity firm Blackstone, are believed to have received bids of more than £70m. The Reubens own the former In And Out Club in nearby Piccadilly.