£36m payday for building firm brothers

TWO brothers have sold nearly £36m of shares in the housebuilding company set up by their father six decades ago.

Richard and Graham Cherry offloaded a total of just over 11m shares in Countryside Properties for 325p each.

But they still own around 15.5m Countryside shares worth nearly £50m at last night’s closing price of 318.6p.

Essex-based Countryside, which special- ises in housebuilding and regeneration, was founded by Alan Cherry in 1958.

A well- known industry figure, he remained chairman until his death aged 76 in 2010.

Graham Cherry, 57, joined the company as a graduate trainee in 1980 and was appointed to the board in 1984, and runs the housebuilding arm of the business.

Richard Cherry, 56, also joined as a gradu- ate trainee in 1982 and was appointed to the board in 1986. In April this year, he announced plans to step down as chief executive of the urban regeneration arm of the business and retire.

The brothers sold nearly 3.3m shares each when the company returned to the stock market in February last year.

The sale would have earned them a total of around £15m at the float price of 225p.