The news that Ted Tuppen, the chief executive of Enterprise Inns, has persuaded HM Revenue & Customs to allow it to become a real estate investment trust (Reit) should not have surprised the market.

Amid all the noise in the pub sector about smoking bans, consumer downturns and the strategic review at Mitchells & Butlers, it is typical that Mr Tuppen should have been working quietly behind the scenes to create one of the most significant changes in the pub trade since the Beer Orders.

It was the advent of the Beer Orders, introduced by the Government as a means of breaking the dominance of the big brewers, that gave Mr Tuppen his first big chance. In 1991, he set up Enterprise to buy up some of the thousands of pubs that the brewers were forced to offload. Since then he has bought well over 10,000 pubs and sold on 3,000, although it is four years since his last big acquisition.

Some analysts reckon that, once Reit status has been achieved, which could take several months, the divorced father of four could decide the time is right to step down. Others believe that becoming a Reit could allow Enterprise to return to the acquisition trail and give Mr Tuppen an incentive to stay on.

Mr Tuppen, 56, who drives an Aston Martin and part-owns a restored 1923 sailing boat, started his career as an accountant with Peat Marwick. He gained an MBA from the Cranfield School of Management. When he is not sailing, Mr Tuppen spends spare time, skiing, shooting, racing cars, playing golf and walking the dog. He has also recently started training for a bicycle ride for an injured soldiers' charity. This month, he will join 300 cyclists on a 350-mile ride from Sword Beach in Normandy to Chelsea, London, to raise £6 million for Help for Heroes.

Mr Tuppen's eldest son, Tom, is a captain in the Gurkhas and recently returned from Afghanistan. Mr Tuppen, who has raised almost £50,000 so far, admits that the cycle ride presents one of his biggest sporting challenges. “The fund-raising is going quite a bit better than the training.”

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