Share trading was suspended today in Humberts, one of England's largest chains of estate agents part-owned by Vincent Tchenguiz, over doubts about its financial viability.

In a terse statement to the Stock Exchange the loss-making company, which has 80 offices and about 700 staff in the South of England, said the request to suspend its shares was made "pending clarification of its financial position."

The chain said it was "investigating a potential restructuring."

Mr Tchenguiz, the Mayfair-based entrepreneur who controls a highly leveraged property-related investment empire, owns about 23 per cent of Humberts through his Consensus Group of businesses. .

A demise of the group would be the first high profile estate agency casualty from the housing market slowdown.

In January, the company issued a profits warning and parted company with Tim James, the executive chairman, and Max Ziff, the chief executive who floated the business on AIM.

Mr Ziff had driven an aggressive acquisition programme over the previous two years to turn Humberts from a small regional firm into one of Southern England's largest firms with a foothold in Mayfair.

In February the group reported a £17 million post-tax loss and gave the first warning about its future.

At the time Humberts blamed the slowing property market for its financial woes and said that it was in urgent talks to raise cash without which there was a “material uncertainty” about its future.

Two days ago new chairman John McLean, warned that the board was reviewing whether it would be able to meet the conditions for a proposed fund-raising rescue package.

Last month it announced that it was to raise £2.25m from shareholders in a move that allowed it to “once again look to the future”.

The money was needed to help pay for deferred payments still owing to sellers of businesses bought by the company during an aggressive expansion programme in 2006 and 2007. One of these has threatened to wind up the company if he is not paid.

Jonathan Vandermolen, a businessman who sold his company Blenheim Bishop to Humberts for £2.3 million in 2006, claimed that he was still owed more than £1 million from the sale. He has sent a solicitor’s letter to the company threatening it with winding-up proceedings if he is not paid.

Humberts problems come one month after a warning from Movewithus, the biggest network of independent estate agencies, that one third of estate agents could lose their jobs by next year

Of the estimated 12,000 agents, at least 4,000 will close by next year, according to Robin King, director of Movewithus.

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