Richard Balfour-Lynn celebrates his 54th birthday in ten days’ time. Until last week, he would have expected to have added a vast fortune from the £2 billion flotation of the Vector Hospitality real estate investment trust.

That would have been on top of the millions he has already made after more than three decades in commercial property with a side-career in making wine.

However, the Vector flotation was pulled. Mr Balfour-Lynn would have been a big shareholder in Vector and run the company’s external management firm.

Nevertheless, he is still able to multi-task. The son of an eminent London doctor, Mr Balfour-Lynn is chief executive and a big shareholder in Marylebone Warwick Balfour.

The FTSE 250 property company was founded with Joe Shashou, a friend he has known since their days at Westminster School, and Michael Harrison, another long-time family friend.

Running MWB gives Mr Balfour-Lynn control of its Hotel du Vin and Malmaison chains of hotels. Those assets would have been sold into Vector.

MWB is also a majority shareholder of Liberty, the department store where Mr Balfour-Lynn sits as chairman. MWB is also majority shareholder of MWB Business Exchange, the listed serviced office group, where he also sits as chairman.

In addition, there is the Alternative Hotel Group, a venture he set up with Bank of Scotland with assets ranging from £1 billion-worth of De Vere hotels to the Village chain of hotels and conference centres. They were also destined for Vector.

In between running a hotels empire, the property entrepreneur is proud to have just launched his first vintage of Balfour Brut Rose, more than 9,000 bottles of pink sparkling wine that was cultivated on the 400 acres of his Hush Heath farm in Kent.

Mr Balfour-Lynn is married, with two sons and two daughters. His hobbies include martial arts.