Forty people of Indian origin have found a place on the ‘2017 Sunday Times Rich List’ of the 1,000 wealthiest men and women in the United Kingdom. At the very top are the Hinduja brothers – Srichand and Gopichand – with an estimated fortune of 16.2 billion pounds. The Hindujas have gained more than 3.2 billion pounds in their fortunes over the last year, PTI reported.
The Hindujas lead an elite group of 134 billionaires on the list and have made their fortune from investments in industries such as oil and gas, automotive, information technology, energy, media, banking, property and healthcare sectors.
The second spot, occupied by the Hinduja brothers until 2016, has been taken over by Ukrainian-born American businessman Len Blavatnik with 15.9 billion pounds.
Another set of India-born entrepreneurial brothers, David and Simon Reuben, who had topped the list last year, has moved down to third place with a fortune of 14 billion pounds, whereas steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal is at the fourth position with 13.2 billion pounds.
“The furnaces are roaring again in the steel industry. Mittal, 66, the largest steelmaker in the world, is feeling the effect in his bank balance and on the ‘Rich List’, where his 6.1 billion increase from last year is one of the highest annual rises to date,” the list reads.
‘The Sunday Times Rich List’ says that uncertainties triggered by Britain’s vote to leave the European Union last June have not affected the country’s billionaires’ ability to make money, as they enjoyed a 14% rise in their fortunes since last year to earn a record 658 billion pounds collectively.
“While many of us worried about the outcome of the “Brexit” referendum, many of Britain’s richest people just kept calm and carried on making billions,” said Robert Watts, compiler of the list for The Sunday Times.
Among the other 40 people of Indian original are new billionaires Mohsin and Zuber Issa, whose Euro Garages business is Europe’s largest independent fuel retailer. They are ranked 133rd on the list with a fortune of one billion pounds. Joining them are Raj, Tony and Harpal Matharu – who made one billion pounds last year with their Grange hotel chain in the UK.
The other billionaires of Indian origin on the list include Sri Prakash Lohia at 27 with 3.97 billion pounds; Anil Agarwal at 60 with two billion pounds; Sunil Vaswani and family’s car dealerships business at 63 worth around 1.97 billion pounds; Manchester-based Simon, Bobby and Robin Arora at 65 with 1.92 billion pounds; Navin and Varsha Engineer’s pharmaceuticals business at 107 and valued at 1.2 billion pounds; and hotelier Jasminder Singh and family is ranked 128 with 1.03 billion pounds.
Other people on the list include singer Adele, dubbed Britain’s wealthiest female musician with 125 million pounds. This year’s list has been described as more diverse in composition, with more women, more people from non-UK backgrounds, and more from “surprising walks of life”, with egg farmers and pet food makers among the super-rich line-up.
Corrections and Clarifications: A previous version of this story had referred to Len Blavatnik as a Ukrainian businessman.
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