He made his first fortune as an early tech entrepreneur, came to prominence as owner of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club and became a household name as the host of The Apprentice TV show. But it is in property that Lord Alan Sugar made the really big bucks.

Lord Sugar’s property investment company Amshold paid him a £390M dividend in 2021, accounts filed at Companies House just before the new year showed. It is one of the largest pay packets ever paid to a British businessperson, the Daily Mail reported.

Amshold has a London-focused investment portfolio that was valued at £271M in June 2021, the accounts show. It made an operating profit of £40M in the 12 months to the end of June, up from £15M the year before, with the rise mainly a result of profits on assets it sold.

The company sold three investment properties for a combined £121M during the year, the accounts said. They had previously been valued at £109M, realising an £11M profit once selling costs were deducted. That included assets in Soho and Clerkenwell.

But the dividend was not paid out as a result of the company’s performance in 2021 — in fact, Amshold said the properties it kept hold of for the whole year fell in value by about 3%.

The £390M was cash that was built up in previous years and freed up through an internal corporate restructuring begun in 2019. The company also raised £80M of long-term loan notes, which are due for repayment in 2071. The previous year, it had no debt.

Amshold said that Covid-19 had hit the business, hindering its ability to collect rent from some of its properties, though overall its portfolio had proved resilient.