Last Saturday night, Patron Capital boss Keith Breslauer stood stripped to the waist in a Swiss chalet in Chamonix, fists in the air, gyrating, taking part in a mass Harlem Shuffle. Video evidence shows a disabled Royal Marine waving his prosthetic leg in the air behind a bobbing crowd of Patron staff.
At 6.45am on Monday, the boss of the €2.4 billion (£2.04 billion) property fund manager agreed with Lloyds Banking Group to take a 46.5% equal stake in Cala Homes, alongside Legal & General. Managers at the dour Scottish housebuilder have been given the remaining 7%. Their new shareholder will take some getting used to.
The 47-year-old American is a father of four. His developer dad went bust. Breslauer has a pocket-dynamo physique, topped by a polished dome. This contains a brain that appeared to work at twice-normal speed during a meeting at 5pm on Monday. Maybe it was the coffee? Actually, no. Breslauer has climbed a 3000ft cliff in the US to raise £42,000 for disabled Royal Marines.
He has raised more than £100,000 for the cause, a tie that explains the appearance of two disabled soldiers at his après-ski party, as they got to come as guests of the man who has lived in Britain for 20 years.
“I first came over in 1992 to help sort out Lehman Brothers’ positions with Robert Maxwell after he died,” says Breslauer, who went on to head the bank’s real-estate operations in Europe before leaving in 1997 to found Patron, which now has 70 staff in Hanover Square.
The charitable American also supports the Prince’s Teaching Institute. He says of Cala: “It is affirmation of the kind of deals we are looking for.”
Patron has €600 million left in the kitty. Anyone looking to pep up a property business with cash from a full-on banker with passable dance skills should apply to Breslauer.
