Urs Schwarzenbach is a Swiss-born financier based in the United Kingdom.
Schwarzenbach set up Interexchange, the largest foreign exchange dealership in Switzerland. Through its success he has bought well over £300m of property in the UK, 123,000 acres (500 km2) in Australia, a palace in Morocco, £17m of assets in the aviation field and the Grand Hotel Dolder in Zürich. He also has his own polo team, the Black Bears.
He personally backed the racing-themed restaurant Café Grand Prix in Mayfair, London, but this went into liquidation in 2004.
Known locally as "Short Urs" due his diminutive stature, Schwarzenbach lives at Culham Court near Henley-on-Thames and sponsored the rowing gallery of the River and Rowing Museum in Henley which is named after him. He also owns other estates and farms in England, a 10,000 acre sporting estate in Scotland and the largest country estate on the Isle of Wight. His wife, Francesca, is a former Miss Australia who still retains a statuesque beauty. The couple have two adult children.
In 2005, Urs was estimated to be worth around £900m and, according to The Sunday Times Rich List 2008, he was ranked 88 and was then worth circa £842m.
Like all such lists, no one really knows the full extent of his wealth given the complex structuring of the many family offshore trusts, and the tentacles of power such wealth generates. So it is perhaps no surprise that in March 2011, reporters from The Sunday Times were making enquiries about Schwarzenbach's financing of various Russian and Chinese enterprises and individuals.
Such connections may explain the very obvious and very heavy security measures in place around his various homes and the 24/7 patrols by ex-servicemen, some of whom originate from Hereford. However this very visible presence has now gained the attention of the travelling community who make frequent "contact" with, and occasionally "acquisitions" from, the estate.
The ineptitude of the Thames Valley Police following a £50,000 theft of quad bikes and other estate equipment in 2007 infuriated Urs so much that that he brought in Kroll Security to investigate.
In 2007, Schwarzenbach outbid other foreign buyers to acquire Culham Court, a 650-acre (2.6 km2) riverside estate downstream of Henley-on-Thames on the Berkshire bank. Originally put on the market for £25 million, he paid £35 million just four days later and immediately proceeded on a multi-million pound, five year refurbishment programme with dozens of workmen and artisans on site at any one time. French craftsmen were drafted in for the bedrooms' pure silk wall coverings and work continues in July 2011.
Schwarzenbach bought the estate from Paddy and Annabel Nicoll: Mrs Nicoll's father was Martyn Arbib, former head of the Perpetual fund management company, who bought the estate as a wedding present for her in 1997 for a mere £12 million.
Coincidentally, Culham's connections with the world of finance run deeper still: Arbib acquired the property from Felicity Behrens, wife of the banker Michael Behrens, who lived there for nearly half a century from 1949 to 1996.
Schwarzenbach's development of the Culham Court estate continues apace with the on-going extension of the existing 90-acre (360,000 m2) deer park requiring over 4 kilometres of wrought iron deer fencing, a helipad for the "his" and "hers" choppers, a mile long "London" drive through woodland to the main road, the 2010 £8 million acquisition of three cottages and the original walled gardens which will be reinstated to provide fresh fruit and vegetables for the main house, a new ha-ha, and an extensive state of the art 24/7 security system including a "hard" room.
A new, county standard cricket pitch is under construction in July 2011, together with a pavilion though unfortunately no one appears to have told Urs this land regularly floods!
The latest creation is a maze requiring the planting of 20,000 mature yew bushes and this is just part of the 20 year grand plan that has devised for the gardens and grounds.
Another property acquired for £2m in 2010, and situated on raised ground that overlooks Culham Court, is set to be demolished and "Culham Cathedral", a Roman Catholic chapel, is to be built in its place.
The Schwarzenbachs give so generously to the Roman Catholic church that in 2010, both Urs and Francesca were awarded the GCSG as knight and dame respectively of the Pontifical Order of Saint Gregory the Great. This award is directly in the gift of the Pope himself.
Symms, the Oxford based building company undertaking all the work on the Culham estate, now sponsors the Hambleden Horse Trials. Schwarzenbach bought that entire village on the opposite side of the river to Culham Court for £38 million in 2007.
In 2008, it was widely reported in the press that Schwarzenbach had bought nearby Fawley Court for £22 million. Another substantial riverside property on the outskirts of Henley-on-Thames and once owned in the nineteenth century by a Scottish banker, it was sold in controversial circumstances by the Congregation of Marian Fathers, a Polish religious community which had no further use for it.
Subsequently Aida Hersham, who describes herself as a philanthropist and is often to be seen in the company of Francesca Schwarzenbach, announced that she was the new owner of Fawley Court having paid just £13 million for the property. Interestingly Urs Schwarzenbach has never issued any denial of, or correction to, those original press reports and all the local and national estate agents are well aware of his potential interest in any major riverside property that may come to market in the Henley area.
In July 2011, Aida Hersham was sued for £5 million "commission" by Richard Butler-Creagh over the Fawley Court purchase. Aida's company vehicle used for the purchase transaction has since won it's counter claim against Butler-Creagh and, as an aside, here's what the Honourable Mr Justice Eady had to say [and he wasn't exactly complimentary!]: http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/QB/2011/2525.html
But bach to Urs. On September 1 2011, Urs completed on the £6 million purchase of several hundred acres of riverside farmland around the local villages of Aston and Remenham. This land was acquired from the usually acquisitive Copas Farm Partnership at a price per acre / hectare well in excess of current agricultural values as Schwarzenbach endeavours to increase the extent of the Culham estate.
The villagers of Remenham have been disappointed to learn that this land acquisition did not include the area leased out by Copas for corporate hospitality during the Henley Royal Regatta, the Henley Music Festival that follows the rowing, and the Rewind Festival later in the summer season. THe latter event in particular causes much noise and aggravation to the local residents over its three days of retro music.
On October 1 2011, extensive building works continue on the main house yet again with Symms continuing to be the main benficiary of the contract and work at the two lodges adjacent to the A4130 at the main entrance to the "London drive" are still not complete after well over a year and some interesting underground developments.
Read more:
http://www.papalknights.org.uk/assoc-members.html http://www.henleystandard.co.uk/news/news.php?tabp=y&id=766408 http://www.henleystandard.co.uk/news/news.php?id=428279 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fawley_Court http://www.thehambledenestate.com http://www.symminternationalhorsetrials.co.uk http://thames.me.uk/s00870.htm http://property.timesonline.co.uk/tol/life_and_style/property/buying_and_selling/article670504.ece http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-402532/Financier-offers-10m-asking-price-record-country-house-sale.html#ixzz0zYDJBTFw http://www.bailii.org/ew/cases/EWHC/QB/2011/2525.html