Mark Clare and Mark Pain, chief executive and finance director of Barratt Developments, are known by rivals as the Marx Brothers. What has happened to the housebuilder during their two years in charge is no laughing matter, however. In April 2007 they paid £2.2 billion for the rival Wilson Bowden. Within months the property market started to turn. Barratt’s shares fell another 24 per cent yesterday, valuing the company at only £317 million, as investors worried that it will be forced to issue shares to prevent it breaching covenants on its bank loans. The problem is that the shares have now fallen so far that raising enough equity will be very difficult, leaving the Marx Brothers right in the Duck Soup.

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