Ronnie Nathan

Property Development / Funding

As a teenager…

Born in London, the family soon moved to Watford, Hertfordshire where I spent my schooldays at a very minor Private school. Leaving school at 16, I joined the family business and became a poultry livestock valuer.
It was several years later that I was diagnosed as being allergic to live poultry sheds so I decided to change careers. A chance dinner with an old Friend who had a couple of years earlier started an Estate Agency Practice in Harrow led to my acquiring 50% of the business. In 5 short years we grew from a single office to 5 offices in Harrow and Buckinghamshire.

After school…

During this period I started to become interested in Property Development and we undertook some small residential flat projects in Harrow. As life would have it, a phone call in 1970 from an estate agent I knew asked me if I knew Paris, of course I said yes. I was asked if I would be interested in looking a company that owned a department store and 2 factories in the centre of Paris I said yes. The Purchase price was about £7 million then. As the largest development we had done was about £100,000, I was confident. Why not. The end result was we found the backing and the total refurbishment of the store which Became Marks & Spencer Paris and the 2 factories turned into Offices was a reality. During the development I was approached by a major fund and asked if I would sell my interest the answer was yes. Thus began the start of my major Property interests.
I formed a new company Waterglade International Holdings PLC that carried out projects in the UK, France, Belgium, Holland, Germany, Spain and Portugal. The company was floated on the UK Stock Market in March 1987. Following our becoming a Public Company we were asked to join others, together with the Bank of Spain to create the Property Pension fund of Banco de Espana. I sold my interest just before the 1993 financial crash. I subsequently founded Capital & Overseas Holdings as my private property Vehicle and also financed in 1984 Interproperty Systems the Developers of PRODEV Development Appraisal Software I remain Chair of the company today.

Now I’m…

In 1984 I was invited to join “Variety Club” the Children’s Charity joining several of their events and fundraising committees. In 1992 I became a trustee of the charity becoming Chairman of the Board of Trustees and Governing Council of the Charity in 2006. I retired as a director and Trustee of the charity in December 2022 but still remaining as chair of the charities Grants.

5 bits of advice to my teenage self…

  • My word is my Bond
  • Non illigitimus carborundum
  • Always check before you act
  • If Life has been good to you be good to Life and give back to those who need
  • Never stop learning

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