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William Pears Group is one of Britain's largest property companies, with £6 billion of property in London and south-east England.
The William Pears Group was founded in 1952, by Bernard Pears (who changed his name from Schleicher on emigrating from Austria) and his son Clive Pears. It is run by Mark Pears with his younger brothers Trevor and David.
According to The Daily Telegraph, Mark Pears is a director of 212 companies, a "complex labyrinth of operating and investment companies", but won't say which is the main holding company or what the group's annual profit is.
William Pears Group owns 3 - 4,000 London freehold residential properties, including large areas of Notting Hill. In 2009, they were reported as owning 15,000 properties in total.
In 2009, William Pears Group paid £750 million to Land Securities, to buy Telereal Trillium, a commercial property management and investment company.
In April 2013, William Pears Group bought The Spires Shopping Centre in Barnet, London, from the bank UBS for a reported £34 million.