A LIST of the UK’s wealthiest people still shows a chemical billionaire among the very richest – despite his fortune taking a hit from the coronavirus crisis.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe, boss of Ineos, has slipped from being Britain’s third wealthiest person to number five.
The Sunday Times Rich List estimates his wealth has dropped by £6billion to £12.15bn.
Sir Jim has become increasingly involved in sport and signed a five-year sponsorship deal with the AMG Petronas Formula One team, fronted by Lewis Hamilton. He also has the former Team Sky cycling squad, rebranded Team Ineos.
He is seeking to deliver a million bottles of hand sanitiser a month to UK hospitals and took just 10 days to build a factory producing sanitiser in County Durham.
Ineos, whose registered office is in Lyndhurst, has around 22,000 people at 183 plants in 26 countries, but the Rich List expects it to have badly hit by Covid-19 slump.
Sir Jim, 67, is reported to have moved to Monaco but retained a home at Beaulieu.
Andy Currie, another director of Ineos, and John Reece, its finance director, are at joint number 30 on the list. The list estimates each man’s wealth at £4.1bn, down £2bn.
The owner of Hurstbourne Park estate in Hampshire, Leonie Schroder, and her family, remain at number 35 on the list, with an estimated wealth down £42m to £3.97bn. The 46-year-old replaced her father Bruno as director of Schroders, the family’s asset management business, after his death last year.
Ian and Richard Livingstone, whose company London and Regional Properties owns the five-star Chewton Glen Hotel at New Milton, are at number 36 on the list – up from 37, although their fortune is thought to have dropped £100m to £3.9billion. Brothers Ian, 58, and Richard, 55, own a global property empire.
Georg and Emily Opel, who have invested heavily in renewable energy, are at number 89 on the list, up from 91, with their wealth unchanged at £1.65bn. Georg, 54, and Emily Von Opel, 46, own property in Hampshire.
Martin Moller, Hampshire-based founder of the aircraft leasing service Nordic Aviation Capital, is joint number 116, down from joint 108. Mr Moller, 55, is estimated to have seen his wealth drop £150million to £1.25bn.
The Matharu brothers and their families, whose Jastar Capital owns the Elvetham hotel in Hartley Wintney, Hampshire, are at number 111 on the list, up from 112, with their wealth down £21m to £1.3bn. Raj, 62, Tony, 59, and Harpal, 63, sold four central London hotels for £1bn last year.
The composer Lord Lloyd-Webber is at number 174 on the list, down one place, with his fortune down £20m to £800m. Andrew Lloyd Webber, 72, is also a theatre impresario who stands to lose millions from the current closure of venues.
He lives at Sydmonton Court near Basingstoke.
Clinton and Spencer McCarthy – founders of Ringwood-based Churchill Retirement Living – are at number 209 on the list, up from 213, along with their father John.
John was the co-founder of retirement housing giant McCarthy & Stone and his sons Clinton, 55, and Spencer, 54, set up their own retirement developer. The family’s wealth is said to have risen £31m to £681m. The family gave £200,000 to the Conservatives ahead of last December’s general election.
Jeffrey Smith, 74, former chairman of the aircraft interior specialist AIM Group, and now behind the Havant property company Proudreed, is at number 436 with an estimated wealth of £300m. He was not on last year’s list.
Mike Clarke, who is selling three historic forts on the Solent, is at number 481 on the list, down from 464, with a fortune unchanged at £270m.
The 65-year-old went into property after selling his bed company Dreams in 2008.
The Slowe family, who own farmland at Candover Valley in mid-Hampshire, are at number 537 on the list, down from 532, with a fortune up by £1m to £228m. Cousins Robert, 83, and Michael, 85, own a property business led by chairwoman Tania Slowe, 58, of the family’s fourth generation.
The film-maker Arthur Landon, 38, is at number 610, down from 606, with a fortune unchanged at £200m. He inherited much of his wealth from his father Brigadier Tim Landon, who owned the village of Faccombe, near Andover.
Sir Euan Astruther-Gough-Calthorpe and family are at number 685, down from 676, with a fortune up £1m to £180m. The 53-year-old property owner sold off 300 acres in Hampshire but still owns 4,000 acres.
Lee Biggins, co-founder of the online jobs board CV-Library, based in Fleet, is at number 743 on the list, up from 787.
The 42-year-old’s fortune has gone up by £15m to £165m. He conceived the business in 1991, while looking for work and taking a computer literacy course, and launched it with business partner Brian Wakem.
Darren Ridge, founder of the Fareham-based telecoms business Onecom, is at number 793 on the list, down from 731, with his wealth down £7m to £153m.
The 57-year-old sold the mobile phone retailer KJC before founding Onecom, whose business clients include Farrow & Ball. He stepped down as its chief executive last year but is a non-executive director.
George Meyrick, 50, whose family has property and commercial interests in Hampshire, is at number 911 on the list, up from 914, with wealth up £3m to £132m. The Bournemouth-based climate change lawyer took over the business from his father Sir George, who died last year.
The former Conservative MP Richard Benyon, a major landowner in Hampshire, Berkshire and Scotland, is at number 923, down from 900, with wealth unchanged at £130m.
Warren Haskins, chairman of the Haskins Garden Centres chain, is at number 949 on the list, down from 897, with his wealth up £5m to £126m.
The garden centres, including the one in West End, Southampton, were took at hit from the coronavirus lockdown, causing the Rich List authors to write down the value of his interests until the situation is clearer.
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