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Debts force top banker Roddie Fleming to sell farms
Robert Lea19.03.09
ONE of the City's highest-profile bankers is selling the family farms to pay debts.
Roddie Fleming, a scion of the billionaire banking dynasty whose members have included James Bond author Ian and former England cricketer Matthew, has put on the market 700 acres in Oxfordshire worth more than £4 million.
"My banks are fully supportive but its better to have zero debt at the moment," said Fleming of the move to sell two farms next to his Sarsgrove estate in Churchill, near Chipping Norton. "The stock market has taken a battering, but farm prices haven't."
He remains a significant shareholder of family firm Fleming Family & Partners, but personal interests have included hard-hit mining and financial companies.
Reader views (2)
My deepest sympathies to you: Roddie, things must be very tough.
Once the Banks release money for mortgages again; I will buy both of them if they give me a 100% mortgage.
I want to get on the Farming Ladder and grow my own food.
By the way; have you tried looking for oil under your farms; you never know what you will find; till you look etc.
Even coal would help cut your heating bills; and you could export the surplus to Russia; or Iran.
Good Luck old chap.
- Mickyinlondon, london
Must be hard being down to your last million or so!!
- Mike, London England
