The Sunday Times, which has published a list of the richest Britons since 1989, reported that for the first time since the financial crisis of 2007-2008, the number of billionaires in the country has declined. However, not catastrophically – by six. On the other hand, the approximate total “value” of the richest Britons increased by £30.734 billion, to £683.856 billion. Due to the events in Ukraine and the peculiarities of the calculation, some of its long-term participants, such previously ranked eighth on the list.
The Sunday Times today, May 19, presented its annual list of the 350 richest residents of the kingdom. The newspaper has been compiling such ratings since 1989, the current one is the 35th in a row. A couple of days before its publication, the richest Briton of last year, Sri Hinduja, died. However, the Hinduja family, which jointly owns the Hinduja Group conglomerate, has retained its top spot on the list, growing from £28.5bn to £35bn in a year. And the richest Briton is now the brother of the late Gopi Hinduja.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe, founder, chairman and CEO of the chemical company Ineos (estimated at £29.688 billion), and financier Sir Leonard (Len) Blavatnik, who controls Warner Music Group, also entered the top three richest Britons. Experts from The Sunday Times estimate his fortune at £28.625 billion.
The list includes both the British head of state and the head of government. True, The Sunday Times considers them just millionaires. King Charles III is in 263rd place with £600m. In a recent investigation by competitors from The Guardian, King Charles’ net worth was estimated at £1.815bn. Rishi Sunak and his wife Akshata Murthy are in 275th place, down 33 positions. Their capital is estimated at £529 million. In a year, according to The Sunday Times, they lost £201 million.
According to the compilers of the list, it includes both citizens of the United Kingdom and foreigners. Moreover, to be included in the list, it is not at all necessary to permanently reside in the country and have the status of a tax resident.
“In our age of globalization, when London is considered the center of a new financial elite, we also include (in the list. – Kommersant) people who are married to the British, have close ties to Britain, estates and other assets, or who supported British political parties, institutions or charities. We generally remove from the list non-British citizens who have left the UK. This year, we did the same with Roman Abramovich, German Khan and Alisher Usmanov,” reads the note on the rating methodology.
The military conflict in Ukraine has made some adjustments to how the fortune of the Russians included in the list was calculated.
“When evaluating those people who were subject to sanctions by the British government, the EU or the US administration … we took into account that their assets were mostly frozen, not confiscated. As such, their fortunes have remained largely intact, but are in limbo. Only in the case of the sale or confiscation of an asset, we excluded it from our estimates, ”the compilers of the list say.
The richest of the Russian entrepreneurs on the list was Mikhail Fridman, who occupies 20th place, his capital was estimated by the newspaper’s experts at £8.222 billion. The list of billionaires also includes Igor and Dmitry Bukhman (34th place), whose capital is estimated at £5.833bn, Andrey Andreev (136th and £1.3bn), Evgeny Shvidler (161st and £1.1bn), Elena Baturina (163rd and £1.083bn) and finally Vladimir Makhlai (168th and £1bn).
