In the meantime, David was serving as a director of Hillgate Estate Agents, and in 1968, his twin joined the Board. The duo was restoring old boarding houses in London, and remade them into hotels. In 1975, they bought their first hotel, the Howard Hotel, and since then, the identical twins built up shares in a variety of businesses. The Barclay’s empire is growing bigger and bigger, including companies like Ellerman Lines, a shipping company, Littlewoods, a retail company, Yodel, a delivery company, and from the media business, they own The European, The Scotsman, Sunday Business and the whole Telegraph Media Group. Also, they were accused of tax avoidance, by placing property under possession of companies that are registered abroad and controlled through trust funds.
