Property boom boosts porn king

VETERAN soft porn publisher Paul Raymond has suddenly become even richer. Accounts filed last week value his extensive property holdings in London's West End at £264 million - up from £180 million.

Ownership is tied up in a number of family trusts, but Raymond, 78, is reckoned to be worth nearly £600 million.

He started as a washer-up in London's clubland before becoming famous for his Raymond's Revuebar, which he sold recently.

Last year, his main holding company, Paul Raymond Organisation, split into two businesses: property and publishing.

The magazines side is now part of Paul Raymond Publications Holdings. This shows a pre-tax profit of £2.9 million on turnover of £5.2 million between September 23, 2003, when the new company was incorporated, and the end of last year.

The other arm of his empire is Soho Estates Holdings. For the same period, turnover was £4.6 million with pre-tax profits of £2.7 million.

The Revuebar went into receivership this year. Raymond had leased the venue to his friend and colleague of 22 years, former opera singer Gerald Simi, who blamed falling numbers of Asian businessmen visiting London after the Sars epidemic.

But what finally wrecked Simi's ambitions was a steep rise in rent demanded by his landlord - Soho Estates.

At the time, Carl Snitcher, a director of Soho Estates Holdings, said: 'We are, after all, in running a property company.'

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