One of the founding fathers of modern corporate estate agency, Christopher Sporborg, former chairman of Countrywide, has died.

A banker at Hambros, one of his deals was to see through the merger of Bairstow Eves and Mann & Co in 1985, which then became Hambro Countrywide.

Countrywide went on to purchase 300 Nationwide offices for £1 in 1994 during that housing market crash.

Sporborg saw Countrywide also buy Bradford & Bingley’s estate agencies in 2004, and the collapse of Countrywide’s share price, prompting it to pull off the stock market in 2007 and become a private company – a decision since reversed.

Sporborg was a keen horseman, training more than 160 point-to-point winners and master of the Puckeridge Hunt.

Harry Hill, former chief executive of Countrywide, yesterday paid this tribute via Eye, saying: “Christopher Sporborg OBE died two days ago following a mercifully short illness.

“In the mid 1980s, long before institutionally owned estate agencies existed, Christopher Sporborg was already a very successful investment banker and joint (with Sir Chips Keswick) CEO of Hambros Bank in Bishopsgate, London.

“He sat with his small coterie of closest colleagues and advisers and decided that it may be possible to own a chain of estate agents, and offer to home buyers through that chain a range of tailored financial products including mortgages and life assurance.

“For a bank more used to advising members of the landed gentry and major FTSE 100 clients, this was a brave and extremely surprising strategy, but they decided to go ahead and in 1986 bought a controlling interest in the only two quoted agencies (Bairstow Eves and Mann & Co).

“They were merged as Hambro Countrywide Plc and Christopher became chairman, a position he held until the business was sold 22 years later to Apollo of the USA for a figure in excess of £1bn – a figure that gave him and me enormous pleasure at it exceeded the capital value ever attributed by the stock market to Hambros Bank itself prior to its break-up and sale a few years earlier.

“In 1988 it was my great fortune to become chief executive of the company and have the enormous pleasure of working very closely with Christopher.

“Despite being softly spoken and an elegant manner, he was made of steel and always stood four square with the management team as they rapidly expanded the business both organically and by acquisition during the 1990s, and along the way created the first new major life assurance company in the UK for decades.

“On a personal basis, Christopher and I became firm friends. He had an enormous passion for many things, but particularly horse racing, and he and I shared ownership of several point-to-point horses.

“On my 60th birthday, at a surprise party in Portugal, Christopher and his wife Cindy made the trip although Cindy was far from well and they had a major function to attend the following day in London.

“During a speech, which he asked to make, I will always remember him saying that he loved me (thankfully the only man to have ever said so) and in truth I also loved him, almost like a father.

“His death leaves a hole in many people’s lives and the enormous amount of work that he did for many years for a whole host of charities (for which he received his OBE) will probably have to fall on to many shoulders, but certainly for me his passing is an enormous sadness.

“RIP Christopher.”