Now the going has got so tough in real estate, it is only the tough who are getting going, courtesy of their ability to woo nervous financiers.

Raymond Mould and Patrick Vaughan have demonstrated the point, by raising £226m (€263.4m) in equity finance at 105p a share, at a tight discount of 11.8% to the previous day's closing price. The cash call, energetically supported by adviser Keith Crawford at KBC Peel Hunt, follows a £248m equity fund raising towards the end of 2007.