Christian Candy

Nicholas Anthony Christopher Candy (born 23 January 1973) and Christian Peter Candy (born 31 July 1974) are British luxury property developers.

In 1995, they bought their first property, a one-bedroom flat in Redcliffe Square, Earl's Court, London.

Using a £6,000 loan from their grandmother, the brothers renovated the £122,000 apartment while living in it.

Eighteen months later they sold it for £172,000, making a £50,000 profit.

In their spare time between 1995 and 1999, the brothers began renovating flats and working their way up the property ladder.

Eventually they were able to give up their day jobs where Nick worked in advertising for J. Walter Thompson and Christian for investment bank Merrill Lynch and established Candy & Candy in 1999, of which Nick is CEO.

Nicholas and Christian, who did collaborate on the prestigious One Hyde Park scheme in London, operate separate independent businesses and have done for a number of years.

In 2004, Christian established CPC Group in Guernsey, to specialise in high-end residential developments around the world.

Some of their more high-profile developments, however, have been in London.

In 2004, the brothers sought an investment partner to help them buy the site of Bowater House in Knightsbridge, with plans to demolish it and construct 86 luxury apartments.

The brothers were estimated to share a joint net worth of £1.5 billion in the Estates Gazette rich list 2010, placing them at position 52 in the list of the richest property developers in the United Kingdom.

Born in London to a Greek-Cypriot mother and English father, the brothers were educated at Priory Preparatory School and Epsom College in Surrey.

Christian was later studying for a business management degree at King's College London but did not graduate.

Nick graduated from University of Reading with a degree in Human Geography.

Their portfolio includes mining investments in the Runruno gold mine in the Philippines, which has faced opposition from human rights groups after the demolition of local communities in 2012, which caused injuries to six local people.

The development has also been blamed for causing landslides leading to deaths in the area.

On 28 May 2022, The Times reported that Candy Ventures is considering a bid to buy The Hut Group, though journalist Oliver Shah was sceptical, pointing to "a series of disastrous investments in tech start-ups" and "no record of big acquisitions".

However, on 15 June 2022, Bloomberg reported that Candy Ventures had pulled out of the bidding process for The Hut Group.

On 9 March 2022, Nick Candy, a boyhood fan, confirmed he was planning a consortium bid to take over Chelsea Football Club after owner Roman Abramovich put the club up for sale following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.

The sale process was halted the following day after Abramovich's assets, including the club, were frozen to stop him making money from Chelsea, but the UK government was open to considering a variation to its sanctions licence to allow a sale so long as Abramovich received no funds.

On 25 March 2022, The Athletic reported that Candy's bid to acquire Chelsea had failed, despite support from South Korean firms Hana Financial and C&P Sports Group.

In July 2022, his Luxembourg-registered investment vehicle, Candy Ventures SARL, sued Aaqua BV and its major shareholder, Robert Bonnier, for an alleged fraud.

He claimed that Bonnier misled him about Aaqua, a false claim that Apple and LVMH are interested to invest in Aaqua, so requested to the court to froze Bonnier's assets and nullify the swap of his shares in Audioboom Group PLC, a podcast platform, with Aaqua.

Later, the High Court issued a freezing order against Bonnier, but ordered that Candy Ventures had to obtain a £10 million bank guarantee to maintain the freezing order.

In August 2022, the freezing orders were discharged.

On 7 September 2022, Bonnier demanded £150 million in damages from Candy for falsely obtained freezing orders that turned his technology company into a credit risk.

In 2023 Dubai World Trade Centre (DWTC) and Nick Candy’s Candy Capital announced that they have formed a partnership to develop a “super-prime” real estate development in Dubai.

In 2016 and 2017 they were involved in high-profile litigation in the High Court in London which put their reputations on the line.

Mark Holyoake claimed in the High Court action that the Candy Brothers had used threats against him and his family to extort total repayments of £37m against a £12m loan.

Although they were cleared of extortion, Mr Justice Nugee said in his judgment "the protagonists...have been willing to lie when they consider their commercial interests justify them doing so".

Lord Justice David Richards concluded that Mr Holyoake's arguments had "no real prospect of success" meaning Mr Justice Nugee's original decision in 2017 was affirmed.

In recent years Nick Candy has diversified his interests outside of real estate and developed a portfolio of global investments (often in high tech, leading edge technology) through his private investment fund Candy Ventures.

Candy Ventures, alongside Qualcomm Ventures was reported to have led a $37 million funding round for a leading augmented reality and computer vision company.

In June 2018, Candy & Candy was renamed Candy Property in order to reinforce Nick Candy's sole ownership of the business and to align with his wider portfolio of companies.

Mr Justice Nugee went on to say "he had found none of Mr Holyoake's claims to be true, and that there had been no undue duress, influence, intimidation or unlawful interference with economic interests." In June 2018, following another application by Mr. Holyoake, the Court of Appeal rejected Mark Holyoake's bid challenging the high-profile high court ruling in December 2017 (above).

Nick Candy is currently in dispute with Ralph & Russo, which filed for bankruptcy in March 2018, in the UK High Court over a disagreement over the terms of a £17 million loan given by Candy Ventures to the company.

Candy Ventures acquired a stake in Blippar and another tech start-up, Crowdmix, after both companies were placed into administration.

The takeovers were both facilitated by Paul Appleton, who worked as the administrator for the two companies and was appointed administrator in the Ralph & Russo bankruptcy.

Candy Ventures acquired the intellectual property assets of leading augmented reality start-up Blippar in January 2019.

The website for Candy Ventures lists 18 investments within the companies portfolio, including Blippar, UK fashion house Ralph & Russo and data processing company Hanzo Archives.