Tchenguiz property firm Peverel rescued in £62m deal

Peverel, the property management group that was once part of Vincent Tchenguiz's empire, was rescued yesterday, almost a year to the day after it went into

administration.

It has been bought by the private-equity firms Chamonix and Electra in a £62m deal, which they said would secure more than 4,200 jobs.

Peverel, which is the country's biggest property manager, was forced into administration a week after Mr Tchenguiz and his brother Robert were arrested by the Serious Fraud Office.

There have been widely publicised complaints among tenants of poor service and rising charges.

Vincent Tchenguiz claimed at the time of the business being forced into administration that Bank of America Merrill Lynch, which was owed £125m by Peverel, had pulled the plug as "a direct result of the very public commencement of the Serious Fraud Office's investigation into events surrounding the collapse of Kaupthing bank".

Yesterday's deal sees the private-equity firms pay £50.7m to the administrators, Zolfo Cooper, for the business and £11m for cash within it. Royal Bank of Scotland has supplied £25m of debt. Bank of America walks away with some £50m on its original £125m debt.

The new owners have appointed a new chief executive and chairman in the form of Janet Entwhistle, previously managing director of BT Fleet, and Paul Lester, the former chairman of the engineer VT Group. Peverel manages nearly 60,000 retirement flats in retirement homes and 132,000 leasehold flats.