David John Rowland (born 1945) is a British property developer, banker and financier. According to The ''

Sunday Times Rich List The ''Sunday Times Rich List'' is a list of the 1,000 wealthiest people or families resident in the United Kingdom ranked by net wealth. The list is updated annually in April and published as a magazine supplement by British national Sunday n ...

'' in 2019, he is worth £612 million. He is nicknamed 'Spotty'. The Rowland family is an investment adviser to

Prince Andrew, Duke of York Prince Andrew, Duke of York, (Andrew Albert Christian Edward; born 19 February 1960) is a member of the British royal family. He is the younger brother of King Charles III and the third child and second son of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince ...

Early life

David Rowland was born in 1945 to the family of a scrap metal dealer.

Business activities

Rowland established Fordham Investment Group in 1965. In 1970, he sold his stake in Fordham for £2.4 million, and moved to France. In the 1970s, he took control of the shipping company Williams Hudson and the timber group Venesta International through Argo Caribbean Group Limited, a Bahamian company controlled by the trustees of a Rowland's family settlement. In 1989, Rowland acquired 34% interest in

Idaho Idaho ( ) is a state in the Pacific Northwest region of the Western United States. To the north, it shares a small portion of the Canada–United States border with the province of British Columbia. It borders the states of Montana and W ...

-based Gulf Resources & Chemical Corporation from the

Barclay brothers Sir David Rowat Barclay (27 October 1934 – 10 January 2021) and Sir Frederick Hugh Barclay (born 27 October 1934), commonly referred to as the "Barclay Brothers" or "Barclay Twins", were British billionaires. They were identical twin brothers ...

. A controlling stake was bought through a property company Inoco Plc., which was controlled by a Panama-based company, Monaco Group Fund S.A., an entity which was at that time governed by "trustees of settlements whose beneficiaries are Rowland and his children". Rowland himself became CEO of Gulf Resources. In 1991, Inoco sold its stake to Nycal Corporation. Over the following years, Gulf resorted to the American courts to recover company monies they alleged were spent by David Rowland, firstly via the courts and then via their insurance company. One case was settled (though no financial settlement was deemed necessary), while Gulf lost another. In 2009, Kaupthing Bank Luxembourg, affected by the global liquidity squeeze, was divided into two new entities, a 'good, healthy' bank, later renamed Banque Havilland, and a 'bad' bank. David Rowland and his son Jonathan, via their investment company Blackfish Capital, acquired and recapitalized the former and now manage the assets, on behalf of the interbank creditors, of the latter. Redwood Financial Partners, a company controlled by David Rowland and his son Jonathan Rowland, own Redwood Bank, which became operational in 2017. At the same year, David Rowland and his son Edmund Rowland, through their investment company Staunton Holdings Ltd, made a takeover bid for the

Falkland Islands The Falkland Islands (; es, Islas Malvinas, link=no ) is an archipelago in the South Atlantic Ocean on the Patagonian Shelf. The principal islands are about east of South America's southern Patagonian coast and about from Cape Dubou ...

-based FIH group. The takeover failed and their stake in the company was sold. According to the

Panama Papers The Panama Papers ( es, Papeles de Panamá) are 11.5 million leaked documents (or 2.6 terabytes of data) that were published beginning on April 3, 2016. The papers detail financial and attorney–client information for more than 214,488 ...

leak, Rowland was a shareholder in “dozens of offshore companies” in the British Virgin Islands. The companies went through the letters of the alphabet; Asherton, Binbrook, Coalburn, Docking, etc.

Football issues

In 1988, Rowland helped fund a lawyer, David Duff, in a failed takeover of Edinburgh Hibernian, parent company of

Scottish Premier Division The Scottish Football League Premier Division was, from 1975 until 1998, the top division of the Scottish Football League and the entire Scottish football league system. It lay above the Scottish Football League First, Second and (from 1994 ...

football club Hibernian. Eventually the company went into receivership. In 2013, Rowland-owned Fordham Sports Management Ltd. acquired

Manchester City Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The two ...

's top players' image rights.

Conservative Party

In the year before the 2010 United Kingdom general election, Rowland donated £2.8m to the Conservative Party, making him the party's major donor. In 2010, he was announced as being the next Treasurer of the Conservative Party. After this announcement, the ''

Daily Mail The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper and news websitePeter Wilb"Paul Dacre of the Daily Mail: The man who hates liberal Britain", ''New Statesman'', 19 December 2013 (online version: 2 January 2014) publish ...

'' published a series of articles that were critical of him. After public criticism of his former status as a

tax exile A tax exile is a person who leaves a country to avoid the payment of income tax or other taxes. The term refers to an individual who already owes money to the tax authorities or wishes to avoid being liable in the future for taxation at what they ...

, Rowland resigned before taking the position. Rowland had lived in Guernsey, but returned to full United Kingdom residency in order to make donations to the Conservatives.

Electoral law Election law is a branch of public law that relates to the democratic processes, election of representatives and office holders, and referendums, through the regulation of the electoral system, voting rights, ballot access, election management b ...

in the United Kingdom prohibits foreign donations to political parties. In August 2010, Rowland made another donation of £1 million to the Conservative Party. In May 2017, he gave £200,000 to the Conservative Party.

Personal life

Rowland moved from London to Paris at the age of 24, then Monte Carlo, Monaco, and finally Guernsey, where he has lived since at least 2005. He lives at Havilland Hall, the largest privately owned estate on the island, where in 2005,

Prince Andrew Prince Andrew, Duke of York, (Andrew Albert Christian Edward; born 19 February 1960) is a member of the British royal family. He is the younger brother of King Charles III and the third child and second son of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince ...

unveiled a life-size bronze statue of Rowland smoking a cigar in a "vaguely Churchillian pose". He has eight children.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Rowland, David English businesspeople 1945 births Living people Chairmen and investors of football clubs in Scotland Conservative Party (UK) officials Real estate and property developers Conservative Party (UK) donors