Sunday Times Rich List 2022: Sunaks join wealthy elite as UK billionaires swell to record level

[MenInG]

The UK now has a record number of billionaires with 177, according to the new Sunday Times Rich List.

That's up six from 2021 - and the combined wealth of the UK's billionaires stands at £653bn, up more than £55bn (9.4%) on the total wealth of the billionaires in last year's Rich List.

The London-based Hinduja brothers, Sri and Gopi, and family are the richest people in the UK with a £28bn fortune, which is up more than £11bn on last year.

It is the biggest fortune recorded in the 34 years of publication of the Rich List.

Overall, the richest 250 people in the UK this year are worth £710.723bn, compared to £658.089 billion in 2021, an 8% rise on last year.

It comes as typical UK households come under increased financial pressure from inflation, which struck a 40-year-high of 9% in April.

Meanwhile, Rishi Sunak and Akshata Murty made the list for the first time, as their joint £730m fortune put them at number 222.

It comes after the chancellor and his wife's finances have come under intense scrutiny in recent months.

Last month, it was revealed that Ms Murty had non-dom status, which typically applies to someone who was born overseas and spends much of their time in the UK but still considers another country to be their permanent residence or "domicile".

It has been estimated Ms Murty's non-dom status could have saved her £20m in taxes on dividends from her shares in Infosys, an Indian IT company founded by her father.

She later agreed to pay UK tax on her worldwide income.

Read more: Who is Rishi Sunak's wife Akshata Murty - and why are her family so wealthy?


These are the 20 richest people in the UK:

Sri and Gopi Hinduja and family - £28.47bn

Sir James Dyson and family - £23bn

David and Simon Reuben and family - £22.26bn

Sir Leonard Blavatnik - £20bn

Guillaume Pousaz - £19.26bn

Lakshmi Mittal and family - £17bn

Christoph Henkel and family - £15bn

Guy, George, Alannah and Galen Weston and family - £13.5bn

Kirsten and Jorn Rausing - £12bn

Charlene de Carvalho-Heineken and Michel de Carvalho - £11.42bn

Michael Platt - £10bn

Alisher Usmanov - £10bn

The Duke of Westminster and the Grosvenor family - £9.73bn

Barnaby and Merlin Swire and family - £9.6bn

Marit, Lisbet, Sigrid and Hans Rausing - £9.49bn

Anil Agarwal - £9.2bn

Denise, John, and Peter Coates - £8.64bn

John Fredriksen and family - £8.31bn

Mikhail Fridman - £8.22bn

Moshe Kantor - £8bn

One notable absentee from the top of the list is Roman Abramovich.

The former Chelsea owner slid from eighth to 28th in rankings after his finances plummeted from £12.2bn last year to £6bn this year following sanctions, the enforced sale of Chelsea and the sharp fall in his Evraz shares.

SKY

 

[MenInG]

And stupid us thinking that there is poverty in this world!

 

[shaz619]

And stupid us thinking that there is poverty in this world!

Would you distribute all your billions globally ?

 

[MenInG]

Would you distribute all your billions globally ?

Bro - I am not saying that but just the disparity is eye-opening.

 

[shaz619]

Main issue here from a national POV is where those spineless thieves make a big chunk of change from the tax paying public

 

[shaz619]

Bro - I am not saying that but just the disparity is eye-opening.

That’s fair, it is wide and we should certainly question the root causes of the divide

 

[MenInG]

<blockquote class="tiktok-embed" cite="https://www.tiktok.com/@mehdihasanshow/video/7101052214642330923" data-video-id="7101052214642330923" style="max-width: 605px;min-width: 325px;" > <section> <a target="_blank" title="@mehdihasanshow" href="https://www.tiktok.com/@mehdihasanshow">@mehdihasanshow</a> <a title="billionaire" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/billionaire">#Billionaire</a> wealth rose more in the first 2 years of Covid vs. the past 23 years combined, a new report finds. So don’t say we can’t afford to tax the mega rich, <a title="mehdihasan" target="_blank" href="https://www.tiktok.com/tag/mehdihasan">#MehdiHasan</a> <a target="_blank" title="♬ original sound - The Mehdi Hasan Show" href="https://www.tiktok.com/music/original-sound-7101052183730228010">♬ original sound - The Mehdi Hasan Show</a> </section> </blockquote> <script async src="https://www.tiktok.com/embed.js"></script>

 

[James]

Dyson’s riches are eye watering.

Not bad for designing some vacuum cleaners.

 

[Technics 1210]

Asset rich, not cash rich. Big difference.

 

[Robert]

Would you distribute all your billions globally ?

I have no problem with people getting rich, as long as they pay fair taxes, look after their staff, and uphold their environmental responsibility.

 

[shaz619]

I have no problem with people getting rich, as long as they pay fair taxes, look after their staff, and uphold their environmental responsibility.

Problems will always be there, you wont find any company where the employee’s have no gripe at all but that’s what we have unions for thankfully

 

[Cpt. Rishwat]

Don't care about their riches, but I would never trust a British politician who is trying to avoid paying taxes or who is more concerned about preserving their wealth abroad rather than at home. Rishi should have been hounded out of the Conservative party as soon as this information came to light.

 

[MenInG]

 

[daytrader]

Gautam Adani Overtakes Bill Gates To Become 4th Richest Person In The World
At $90billion, fellow countryman Mukesh Ambani ranks 10th on the list.

New Delhi: Indian businessman Gautam Adani has left behind Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates to become the world's fourth richest person, according to Forbes' Real-Time Billionaires List. The 60-year-old business tycoon's net worth reached $115.5 billion on Thursday eclipsing Mr Gates whose fortunes are at $104.6 billion.
At $90 billion, fellow countryman Mukesh Ambani ranks 10th on the list.

Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk, who has been involved in a huge controversy after his bid to buy Twitter only to abandon it later, tops the list with $235.8 billion.

The Adani group Chairman is famed for turning a small commodities trading business into a conglomerate spanning ports, mines and green energy.

"Some of Adani Group's listed stocks have soared more than 600% in the past two years on bets his push into green energy and infrastructure will pay off as PM Modi looks to revive the $2.9 trillion economy and meet India's carbon net-zero target by 2070," Bloomberg had recently reported when he overtook Mr Ambani as Asia's richest person.

"In barely three years, Adani has gained control of seven airports and almost a quarter of India's air traffic. His group now owns the country's largest airport operator, power generator and city gas retailer in the non-state sector," the business news agency added.

Mr Adani on Thursday said the group has won the tender for the privatisation of a port in Israel in partnership with Gadot.

The Port of Haifa is the largest of Israel's three major international seaports.

Adani Data Networks, along with Reliance Jio, Bharti Airtel and Vodafone Idea, has also applied to participate in the upcoming 5G auction. The spectrum auction, scheduled to start on July 26, may see aggressive bids for some frequency bands.

Adani Group on Saturday said it is in the race to acquire spectrum, which it said will be used to create a private network to support its businesses from airports to power as well as data centres.

To mark Mr Adani's 60th birthday last month, his family had pledged to donate Rs 60,000 crores to a range of social causes.

NDTV

 

[ex-q-zit]

Billionaire Hinduja brother almost placed in council care home during family feud, court hears

A member of Britain’s richest family, the billionaire Hindujas, was nearly moved into a council care home during a bitter family feud, a court has heard.

Srichand Hinduja, 86, is the eldest of the four brothers behind the Hinduja Group conglomerate and became the focus of a family row when he was diagnosed with dementia.

His family topped the 2022 Sunday Times Rich List and was said to be worth more than £28 billion, but a row over his care took the family to the High Court. At the heart of the battle was a pact signed by the four brothers in 2014 that “everything belongs to everyone and nothing belongs to anyone”.

The three other brothers had claimed that the letter governed the succession planning for the conglomerate, a declaration that was challenged by Srichand’s descendants, who claimed that his branch of the family was being sidelined in the group.

With the end of the pact, the stage may now be set for the break up of one of the biggest conglomerates in the world. In London, the family is developing the Old War Office, the imposing building opposite No 10 that once housed Winston Churchill, into a high-end hotel.

The brothers agreed to halt reams of litigation across Europe, ending, for now, a feud that was tearing the once tightly knit British-Indian group apart.

Mr Justice Hayden, who oversaw hearings in the Court of Protection in London, said Srichand’s needs became “marginalised” by the family dispute, notwithstanding his wealth. He has said that at one stage he had concluded that Srichand should leave hospital, but he said relatives had not found private accommodation despite the “extraordinary scope and reach of their financial capacity”.

The Hinduja Group is an Indian conglomerate that owns businesses in 38 countries, employing more than 150,000 people.

The judge, who outlined concerns in written rulings after hearings in London, said he had been driven to consider a placement in a public nursing home.

Court of Protection judges consider issues relating to people who lack the mental capacity to make decisions for themselves. Details of the proceedings emerged on Friday after Court of Appeal judges in London had analysed issues and, also, ruled that journalists could name people involved. The judge said at one stage Vinoo and Shanu Hinduja claimed to have drawn “on Srichand’s assets to fund their own costs of this litigation”.

Mr Justice Hayden said the “identified conflict of interest was so flagrant” and so “manifestly contrary to the fiduciary obligations of the attorneys”, that both Vinoo and Shanu Hinduja had “disclaimed the role”.

Judges generally sit in public but normally rule that vulnerable people at the centre of litigation in the Court of Protection cannot be named in media reports of cases – to protect their human right to respect for private and family life.

But, Mr Justice Hayden has ruled that Srichand Hinduja, and others involved in the case, can be named after hearing public-interest arguments from journalists.

MSN

 

[ex-q-zit]

How India’s Gautam Adani surpassed Jeff Bezos to be among the wealthiest men of 2022

2022 saw the international business world taken by surprise when Indian billionaire Gautam Adani was declared one of the wealthiest men in the world.

https://www.msn.com/en-gb/money/oth...cvid=84b5eee1183f4619a3012216d44ab720#image=1

 

[daytrader]

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet"><p lang="en" dir="ltr">I’m a millionaire – this is why I’m at Davos begging to pay more tax | Phil White <a href="https://t.co/CpgO6nWgYw">https://t.co/CpgO6nWgYw</a></p>— The Guardian (@guardian) <a href="https://twitter.com/guardian/status/1616113810552635396?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">January 19, 2023</a></blockquote> <script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

[daytrader]

US billionaire financier Thomas Lee found dead at 78
A US billionaire financier who helped pioneer the debt-fuelled corporate acquisition known as a leveraged buyout has been found dead, his family says.

In a statement, Thomas H Lee's family said they were "extremely saddened" by the 78-year-old's death.

The New York Post reports that he died from a self-inflicted gunshot wound at his Manhattan office.

The NYPD told the BBC an unnamed 78-year-old man had been found dead on Thursday morning at 767 Fifth Avenue.

The address is where the offices of Thomas H Lee Capital LLC are listed.

According to Forbes, Mr Lee was worth $2bn (£1.6bn) at his time of death.

...
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-64753081

 

[MenInG]

SP Hinduja, the billionaire patriarch of Britain’s richest family and chair of the globe-spanning Hinduja Group conglomerate, has died in London at the age of 87, his family have confirmed.

Srichand P Hinduja, who was known as SP or Sri, had dementia, according to reports.

On Wednesday, a spokesperson for the family said: “Gopichand, Prakash, Ashok and the whole Hinduja family with a heavy heart regret to announce the passing away […] of Mr SP Hinduja today.”

The Hinduja family topped the 2022 Sunday Times Rich List, after their collective fortune rose by more than £11bn to reach £28.4bn, the largest fortune recorded in more than three decades of the list.

Despite the family’s vast wealth, a judge warned last year that Sri Hinduja’s needs, chiefly medical care for Lewy body dementia, had “become marginalised”, amid a family feud over the ownership of a Swiss bank.

Until his death, Sri led the family dynasty, which employs 150,000 people, with his brother Gopi. The siblings began their careers in India but spent most of their time in the UK since the 1970s.

The duo built the Hinduja Group from a relatively small family enterprise into a company with operations in 38 countries, spanning sectors including the automotive industry, oil, banking, media and healthcare.

The empire expanded via landmark deals including the 1987 purchase of the Ashok Leyland group, which included remnants of the defunct British automotive business British Leyland. Three years earlier, the group had bought Gulf Oil from the US oil company Chevron.

Their UK property assets include the 6,224 sq metre (67,000 sq ft) 18th century Carlton House Terrace near Buckingham Palace and the historic Old War Office building in Whitehall.

The brothers’ late father, Parmanand, began trading carpets, tea and spices in 1914, in a part of what was then British India but is now in Pakistan. He later took the business to Iran.

The family’s recent feud revolved around his maxim “everything belongs to everyone and nothing belongs to anyone” and the resulting premise, declared in a letter, that any asset belonging to one brother also belonged to the other three.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/2023/may/17/sp-hinduja-dies-sri-hinduja-group

 

[MenInG]

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his wife lost an average of £500,000 a day over the past year, according to The Sunday Times Rich List.

The couple are estimated to be £201m poorer due to a fall in the value of Akshata Murty's stake in her father's IT firm - but are still worth a reported £529m.

Top of the pile again are Gopi Hinduja and family, who have seen their wealth increase £6.53bn to £35bn.

It is the largest fortune ever recorded in the list and comes after the head of the family, 87-year-old Srichand Hinduja, died this week.

The Hindujas' company, which spans much of the world, deals with everything from banking and oil to automotive groups, healthcare and cybersecurity.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the chemicals titan who's hoping to buy Manchester United, has shot into second after new information about his finances.

The Ineos boss is up an eyewatering £23.6bn to £29.69bn.

However, it is not good news for one of the UK's best-known billionaires, Sir Richard Branson, whose wealth is down £1.79bn - or more than 40%.

It is said to be mainly down to the falling share price of his space tourism and satellite divisions.

Virgin Orbit's first mission from Cornwall in January failed and the venture is now scrambling to avoid bankruptcy.

For the first time in 14 years, the number of billionaires in the UK has actually fallen - down six to 171, according to The Sunday Times.

Others in the top 20 include familiar names such as inventor Sir James Dyson - the country's fifth richest with £23bn; Primark owners the Weston family - number seven with £14.5bn; and Bet365 owners Denise Coates and family - 16th with almost £8.8bn.

Former Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich does not appear in the 2023 chart as he no longer lives in the UK.

This year's expanded list includes 350 people and families, with a minimum of £350m needed to be included.

David and Victoria Beckham, Sir Elton John and Lord Lloyd Webber are among other famous names who make the cut.

The Sunday Times says its list is based on identifiable wealth including land, property, other assets such as art, or significant shares in publicly quoted companies - but excludes bank accounts

SKY

 

[daytrader]

EU-funded report calls for wealth of super-rich to be taxed, not income
Wealthiest 3,000 working on ‘edge of legality’ using shell companies to funnel dividends and own property to negate income tax, says study

Billionaires have been operating on the “border of legality” in using shell companies to avoid tax and the world’s 3,000 wealthiest individuals should be charged a 2% levy on their wealth, a research group created to inform EU tax policy has claimed.

In its inaugural global tax evasion report, the Paris-based EU Tax Observatory said billionaires have been pushing the limits of the law by moving certain types of income, including dividends from company shares, through dedicated holding companies that usually serve no other purpose.

“These holding companies are in a grey zone between avoidance and evasion,” the report said. “To the extent that they are created with the purpose of avoiding the income tax, they can legitimately be seen as closer to evasion.”

The EU Tax Observatory, led by the economist Gabriel Zucman, was founded three years ago and is funded by the EU as part of its efforts to combat tax abuse.

These types of loopholes allow the super-rich to avoid certain forms of income tax, resulting in effective tax rates worth just 0%-0.6% of their total wealth, the report found. Meanwhile, income taxes levied on most wealthy citizens who do not employ these loopholes, end up paying between 20% and 50%.

Shell companies can also stand in as nominal owners for luxury properties in expensive cities such as London. “Real estate continues to provide ample opportunities for the rich to avoid and evade taxes,” the report said.

The shell companies also fall outside the most effective tools that have so far been used to combat tax avoidance, including the automatic exchange of banking information, which is followed by more than 100 countries.

“To date no serious attempt has been made to address this situation, which risks undermining the social acceptability of existing tax systems,” the report said.

The Observatory, which deployed more than 100 researchers to gather the report’s data, is now calling on global leaders to use the next G20 summit in Brazil in November 2024 to launch talks over a global minimum 2% annual tax to be levied on the wealth – rather than the income – of the world’s richest people.

EU-funded report calls for wealth of super-rich to be taxed, not income

Wealthiest 3,000 working on ‘edge of legality’ using shell companies to funnel dividends and own property to avoid income tax, says study

www.theguardian.com