Ian Coull is musing on what could be the defining moment of his career. Segro, the company that he has headed since 2003, is poised to swallow up Brixton, for years its biggest rival in the industrial property market.

The deal would have been inconceivable a few months ago, when Segro was struggling with a £2.4 billion debt pile, but after raising £524 million through a rights issue with a hefty 87 per cent discount, the company — formerly known as Slough Estates, after the town where it began — was ready to be a predator.

It moved in on Brixton last week, with an offer of 1.75 Segro shares for every Brixton share, valuing Brixton at £107 million, along with the promise of a £250 million equity-raising.

Now Segro is set to become one of the biggest industrial property companies in Europe. The combined group will have property assets of £5.5 billion, net rental income of £320 million and a loan-to-value ratio of 50 to 55 per cent. It will own 74 million sq ft of property in the UK and Europe. The two rivals should work well together: while Segro has expanded beyond its traditional Home Counties base into Europe, even renaming itself to make the point that it was now more than merely Slough, Brixton has invested near Heathrow, west of London— near Slough.

But Brixton’s debt, which pushed it to the point where Segro could buy it for a fraction of its previous £1.5 billion value, casts a shadow on the deal. This debt has crippled the company and contributed to the ousting of Tim Wheeler, its chief executive, in March. About £645 million will mature by the end of 2010 and its leverage covenant means that net borrowings may not exceed 175 per cent of adjusted capital and reserves. Brixton has negotiated a one month covenant waiver, but debt problems remain a concern and Segro is yet to complete due diligence.

Brixton’s debt is not the only obstacle that Segro and Mr Coull have faced in recent months. They have been through some hairy times (not least with their own debt problems), as have all commercial property companies. Commercial property values have fallen by 43.6 per cent since June 2007 as credit markets have dried up.

In this climate, Segro’s rivals have suffered. In an attempt to explain the problems in the industrial property market, Mr Wheeler famously cited the lyrics to Bob Dylan's All Along the Watchtower: “There must be some way out of here/ Said the joker to the thief.” Mr Wheeler has since left Brixton. At Land Securities, another competitor, Francis Salway, the chief executive, is also under pressure to change the way in which the company works.

Despite such torrid times, Mr Coull seems secure in his position. He won plaudits for offloading Segro’s American business for $2.9 billion in 2007. Yet he admits that it has not been easy. The rights issue, launched in March after three of industry peers had already raised cash, was “a very stressful time”, he said. “On one hand, Hammerson had gone very well and British Land pretty well, while Land Securities had one or two difficulties.

“We were the fourth and by that time £1.7 billion had already been asked for. I was a bit concerned.”

Investors’ appetite for commercial property rights issues had not been dented and Segro managed a 96 per cent acceptance rate.

The Segro boss has come a long way since he left school in Perth at 18 to work in the council surveyors’ office. There, he studied for his chartered surveyor’s exams by correspondence course and at 25, he began work at Cavenham, Sir James Goldsmith’s company. He enthuses about the experience: “It was fantastic. He had a small team — about 80 in the head office. He didn’t get involved in detail but was very counter-cyclical in his strategic vision.” A spell at Texas Homecare, the DIY chain, followed. Shortly after it was taken over by Ladbrokes, he left to work for J Sainsbury. After 15 years at the retailer, where he took charge of its property portfolio, he took the top job at Segro.

When he joined, Segro was dominated by the Mobbs family, who founded it in 1920. Sir Nigel Mobbs, a grandson of the founder, was chairman and had been chief executive beforehand. Since his death in 2005, Segro has shifted its focus towards Europe.

The Segro boss has been an active lobbyist for the wider property industry. A former president of the British Property Federation, the industry body, he wants pension funds and other institutional investors to be able to buy large-scale residential developments to let. He argues that investors should not have to pay stamp duty on every property and wants changes made to the rules on Real Estate Investment Trusts (Reits).

“The Reits legislation was terrific, but now we need to make a new provision. We should be able to have private Reits and AIM-listed Reits. If we could pay dividends through scrip return rather than cash . . . at times when there is a lot of pressure on capital retention, that would help,” Mr Coull said.

“There is also the question of who is going to buy commercial real estate in the future. Reits could provide the stimulus to get the property market in FPC/SPC for business let and owned and developed.”

The recession has hit both the banking and the property sectors hard. Mr Coull said that he never hit it off with Sir Fred Goodwin, his fellow Scotsman and the former chief executive of Royal Bank of Scotland. “I have been sat next to him at a table of 12 people for three hours and found him very difficult to talk to. I’d have thought that with us both being Scottish working-class boys made good, both interested in rugby, we’d have been able to have a conversation apart from work, but no.”

Sir Fred may have gone, but Mr Coull has no intention of bowing out just yet. “That’s not part of the plan. I enjoy work far too much. Sportsmen always tell you that they knew when they had to retire. I enjoy work and getting up in the morning and don’t know what I’d do without it.”

Q&A

Who, or what, is your mentor?

In the early stages of my career, it was Jimmy Goldsmith, and in the later stages, Peter Davies

Does money motivate you?

Not personally, but it is a major driver for my corporate aspirations

What was the most important event in your working life?

Moving to Sainsbury’s in 1988

Which person do you most admire?

Nelson Mandela

What gadget must you have?

My BlackBerry

What does leadership mean to you?

Providing people with challenges and supporting them so they maximise their potential

How do you relax?

Spending time with my family; playing golf and watching sport, especially rugby

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