Celebrity tycoon enjoys £181m dividend from his property empire

Despite having to endure a 40% hit in profits from his enormous property empire, mainly based in and around London, 69-year-old tycoon Lord Alan Sugar took home £181m in dividends last year.

The star of the BBC’s The Apprentice and founder of the Amstrad computer business now focuses his efforts on investing in commercial property – a strategy that is clearly paying off.

Accounts filed with Companies House show that Amshold, Lord Sugar’s holding company, paid out £181m in total over the 12 months to the end of June 2016, which marks a significant improvement on the £9m a year earlier.

Amshold, solely-owned by Lord Sugar, paid out £100m in December 2015, and then two further dividends of £51m and £30m each in March 2016.

It came as the business, which is focused on London property trading and development, posted a fall in pre-tax profits to £80.2m from £133.9m in 2015.

Lord Sugar’s dividend payment meant that Amshold had net assets of £518.8m, down from £627.2m a year earlier.

His property portfolio includes The Lever Building, which is let out to Tesco, and Gloucester House on Old Park Lane, the site of Hard Rock Cafe, while Amshold’s main redevelopment project is the The Crosspoint, a mixed-use scheme in the heart of the City, near Liverpool Street station, which is due to be completed within the next fortnight.