Sources close to the £2.5 billion sale of Somerfield insisted yesterday that the process had not been set in chain by Robert Tchenguiz, as speculation continued to mount about the potential losses faced by the Iranian billioniare.

An insider close to the auction, which is being run by Citigroup, said: “Robbie may or may not have financial difficulties, but there’s no linkage to what we are doing at Somerfield.”

Rumours continue to swirl over the state of the property tycoon’s finances given an estimated £250 million paper loss from the share price plunge at JSainsbury, in which Mr Tchenguiz bought a 10 per cent stake last year as the Qatari Investment Authority tried to put together a bid for the group.

He is also suffering heavy losses on the value of his stakes in Mitchells & Butlers, the pub chain, and SCi Entertainment, where he owns 15 per cent of the computer games maker.

Critics yesterday said that the timing of the Somerfield auction seemed perfect for the tycoon, given that his investments in the three quoted firms are heavily under water.

He is thought to be paying at least £1 million a week in interest on the contracts for difference that financed half of his 10 per cent holding in Sainsbury’s.

Mr Tchenguiz owns a 30 per cent stake in Somerfield after buying the business with Apax and Barclays Capital in 2005.

He is understood to be bemused at the speculation surrounding not only his wealth but the Somerfield auction, given that the business has, to all intents and purposes, been up for sale since last summer.

He was in London yesterday and friends pointed to recent comments he made during a holiday in which he rejected claims that he had sold his yacht. He was quoted as saying: “I’ve lost a lot of money but I’m not in trouble as people keep saying. It’s just a case of taking the rough with the smooth.”

Property insiders added that Mr Tchenguiz was “sufficiently savvy” to have kept to a minimum his personal liability for his various property and public company investments.

Mr Tchenguiz and his elder brother, Vincent, started buying commercial property investments in earnest in the early 1990s. They gained a reputation for putting in bids worth millions more than the nearest rival to ensure that they could enter exclusive talks, only occasionally to walk from a deal if the market tanked in the meantime.

More often than not, however, the market rose and Mr Tchenguiz made big money from the massive arbitrage that existed at the turn of the century between the low cost of debt and the high initial yield – rental income as a proportion of capital value – from City office buildings.

“He and his brother had a negative value in about 1994 but within ten years they were billionaires,” one source said.

Last July the brothers shared a £150 million cash profit with David and Simon Reuben and Jack Dellal from the sale of Shell-Mex House in London to an American private equity firm for £490 million.

The Somerfield sale could be the final major acquisition opportunity in the £130 billion supermarket sector.

Sources close to Somerfield said that the group was considering a range of options and that a deal could still be months away given the Competition Commission inquiry into the market, the result of which is due to be announced in April.

“We’re testing it and seeing what is out there,” the source said. He added that an assessment would be made about how to proceed within six weeks and that the business could be sold in its entirety or broken up.

Another source said that Somerfield’s advisers were trying to encourage trade buyers to team up and bid for the whole group rather than sell off some stores and leave the rump as a smaller company.

“If there’s value to be paid, it will be paid by a strategic buyer,” the source said, adding that no private equity firms had expressed an interest given the tight lending market.

“There’s no way private equity would want to take bits of it. They’d want the whole and right now they can’t afford it.”

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