HEDGE fund guru George Soros will book a loss of more than 4m on his investment in self-storage group Safestore, snapped up by venture capitalist Bridgepoint for 40m.

Soros, whose Real Estate Investors fund owns 25pc of loss-making Safestore, paid 62p a share for his stake.

Bridgepoint’s offer, recommended by independent directors, including chairman Giles Clarke, is at 44p a share.

Safestore was the only quoted company in the Soros property portfolio.

His desire to sell triggered the Bridgepoint bid.

Bridgepoint, which set up acquisition vehicle Belazure for the offer, is likely to hold on to Safestore for three to five years before exiting.

The Safestore management team, including directors Stephen Williams and Richard Hodsden, will stay on.

Bridgepoint will inject fresh capital into Safestore which has 22 stores offering 700,000 sq ft of lettable space. It will also embark on ‘selective’ acquisitions among the UK’s 400 selfstorage units.

Safestore was floated on Aim by its owner Safeland in March 1998, when storage was seen as a hot growth area.

Investors included Luke Johnson of Intrinsic Value and Saracens rugby club owner Nigel Wray.

The shares, which rose to 110p, fell back to 361/2p before Bridgepoint’s offer.

They closed at 431/2p last night.

THE billionaire Barclay brothers have emerged as eleventh-hour bidders in the 2.5bn auction for Scottish Newcastle’s pubs.

Secondround offers must be made today.

Obsessively private twins David and Frederick Barclay join a long list of candidates vying for the 1,450 pubs, which include the Chef Brewer and Premier Lodge chains.

Their book value is 2.3bn, but higher bids are expected.

Also in the race are Mitchells Butlers, Pubmaster, the Laurel Pub Company, Spirit a pubs group spun out of Punch Taverns and French venture capitalist PAI Management.

Another secretive duo, the Reuben brothers who made their first fortune in Russian aluminium are also interested.

Bid excitement is heating up at spirits group Allied Domecq. New talk that LLOYD’S of London insurer Hiscox bumped up reserves for claims after the September 11 terror attacks.

That will push the Lloyds syndicate it half-owns into a 72m loss for 2001.

The total cost of the Twin Towers attacks has been estimated at between 19bn and 25bn with the cost of rebuilding the first tower as much as 5bn.

Many claims are still outstanding.