More like this
Recession halves number of British-based billionaires
But Lakshmi Mittal and Roman Abramovich remain first and second in the Sunday Times’s annual Rich List despite heavy losses
The full extent of the losses suffered by Britain's richest individuals was revealed by the Sunday Times yesterday. The paper's annual Rich List estimates that the global financial crisis has wiped £155bn off the fortunes of the country's 1,000 richest people, and as a result halved the number of British billionaires.
The biggest loser was Lakshmi Mittal, the Indian-born, London-based steel magnate. His fortune is believed to have been cut by almost £17bn to £10.8bn - yet he remains the richest person in Britain for the fifth year running.
Roman Abramovich, the Russian owner of Chelsea FC, also based in London, is estimated to have lost £4.7bn in the global downturn, reducing his fortune to £7bn. But he too remains at number two on the list.
The richest British-born man is still the Duke of Westminster, whose vast property holdings are thought to have remained pretty much intact. His fortune is down only £500m at £6.5bn and he remains at number three in the Rich List.
Not everyone was a loser. Among those whose fortunes have risen despite the gloom are Sir Ken Morrison, former head of the supermarket chain Morrisons, whose fortune rose by 11 per cent to £1.6bn, and Mohammed Fayed, up a very handsome 17 per cent to £650m.
This will be particularly annoying to The Queen - at least year's inquest into his son's death, Fayed accused Prince Philip of being a "racist Nazi" who ordered MI6 to assassinate Princess Diana - whose shares and property portfolio is reckoned to have lost 16 per cent. She comes in at number 214 in the Top 1,000 - 151 places behind Fayed - with a fortune of £270m.
In terms of the richest women, she is way down the list at number 20, well behind Tina Green, wife of Topshop's Sir Philip Green, Slavica Ecclestone, newly divorced from Formula One boss Bernie Ecclestone, and Harry Potter novelist JK Rowling, to name but a few. ·
Comments are now closed on this article
Comments
It's illogical,I think to assume that the super rich are criminals--it's like saying people with no money at all, are honest,moral etc- money is independent of morals and values
Britain's richest individuals? These two are Indian and Russian respectively. But who cares anyway that the obscenely rich are slightly less rich? They're all basically criminals, no one amasses such fortunes by hard work.