A BUSINESSMAN who was one of Scotland’s wealthiest men has been made bankrupt with debts of more than £2 million.
John Kennedy was hailed as Scotland’s most successful property entrepreneur with an empire stretching from the UK to the Middle East.
He ran Edinburgh-based Kenmore Property Group, which was bankrolled by HBOS until the bank had to be bailed out by taxpayers in 2008.
Kenmore, which was once worth £1.8 billion, collapsed in November, 2009, with multimillion-pound debts after being hit by the property crash.
Mr Kennedy’s company developed and managed property portfolios across the UK, Europe and the Middle East.
The 65-year-old was on the Rich List as having a fortune of
£105million, a bank balance which enabled him to buy a yacht and a private jet.
However, he applied for bankruptcy after running up debts of £2,163,899 and it was approved by the Accountant in Bankruptcy, Scotland’s insolvency service, this week.
Bankruptcy trustee Claire Middlebrook, an Edinburgh-based insolvency specialist, has been appointed to take control of Mr Kennedy’s assets and try to recover money owed to creditors.
Mr Kennedy has declared that he has only £15,190 available to help pay off his creditors.
It has not been disclosed who he owes the money to as his bankruptcy did not go through the courts.
The son of an Ayrshire farmer, he once wanted to join the Navy, but became a property tycoon instead.
After qualifying as a surveyor, he travelled the world in his 20s.
Mr Kennedy founded Kenmore in 1986, when he invested almost everything he owned in an old church on the edge of Edinburgh’s New Town.
It was demolished and offices built in its place, which were then let to oil and gas exploration company Cairn Energy, owned by former Scotland rugby international Sir Bill Gammell.
The property was later sold for a £2million profit.
Speaking about his business success in an interview in 2004, Mr Kennedy said: “The most important thing is to have a track record. In the early days when I would go and speak to a bank I would hammer on the door and they still wouldn’t open.
“Now when I walk up to the door, it opens of its own accord.”
Mr Kennedy, who once had a flying pig suspended over the boardroom table in his Edinburgh headquarters, lives on a farm near Penicuik, Midlothian, where he raises sheep and used to throw extravagant parties.
He once sailed his own yacht across the Atlantic, and spent five years building a marina and leisure business in the Virgin Islands and St Kitts.
Kenmore was funded by HBOS for eight years before it became part of Lloyds.
HBOS is believed to have pumped at least £700million into Kenmore, leaving the bank exposed to steep losses.
Kenmore was one of several well-known Scottish property heavyweights whose success was fuelled by Peter Cummings, the former HBOS banker with an appetite for throwing money at property-backed ventures.
In 2012, Mr Cummings was banned from working in the City of London for life and fined £500,000 by the Financial Services Authority.
His company attracted the attention of Bahamas-based billionaire Joe Lewis, who in 2009 took a 7.5 per cent stake in Kenmore.
The firm made its name as an office developer with landmarks such as the Sentinel building in Glasgow’s Waterloo Street.
In 2007, Mr Kennedy was high on the Sunday Times Rich List with his £105m fortune.
At one point, the keen yachtsman part owned a boat that was built for €30 million in Spain. When not using the schooner, Elena, he rented it out for up to £63,000 a week.
The boat was described as a money-no-object example of outstanding elegance with top-of-the-range specifications.
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