The number and wealth of British billionaires has set a record

The conservative British newspaper The Sunday Times has been compiling a list of the wealthiest of Britain’s wealthiest people in Britain every spring since 1989.

According to the summary, now in its 34th year - the top 250 of which was already covered by the paper on Friday - there are 177 billion people living in Britain, six more than a year ago.

The total wealth of British billionaires is currently £ 710 billion (more than £ 322 trillion), up eight per cent on last year.

According to the compilers of Rich List 2022, the biggest loser on this year's list is Roman Abramovich, the Russian owner of Chelsea in London, who plays in the top division of the English Football Championship - the Premier League.

Abramovich, who became rich primarily in the oil business in the 1990s and has owned Chelsea since 2003, fell back to 28th place in this year’s wealth ranking of twenty, after Rich List 2022 editors estimated his fortune at £ 6.1bn last year. decreased by more than half due to sanctions.

Abramovich announced shortly after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine that he would sell Chelsea and offered the proceeds of the transaction to a charity fund set up to help the victims of the war.

Without this gesture, the 55-year-old Russian oligarch would not have been able to see a single penny of Chelsea's purchase price, as the British government, along with several other Russian financiers, has ordered a complete foreclosure of his UK assets.

According to the compilers of Rich List 2022, the market value of Chelsea could be around £ 2.4 billion. Abramovich has also waived repayment of a £ 1.5bn loan to the club from its own resources, costing almost £ 4bn in the loss of control of Chelsea alone, according to The Sunday Times' list of assets this year.

According to the editors of Rich List 2022, this will be compounded by billions in losses from the sharp fall in the market value of Abramovich’s other investments due to the sanctions. This is particularly true of the London-listed steel company Evraz: the company's market capitalization fell from around £ 2.3 billion last year to £ 340 million and its shares in London were suspended after suspicion, although the company denies it, that the steel produced by Evraz could be used by the Russian military industry to produce tanks.

This year’s billionaire leaderboard is led by the Hindu brothers, with almost £ 28.5 billion. In the immediate vicinity of Buckingham Palace, London’s number one royal residence, Srichand and Gopichand, a Hindu multinational business network living in a six-storey mansion, range from the oil and car industry to financial services to the real estate and media markets.
The family’s wealth has risen by £ 11.5 billion in a single year, according to The Sunday Times.

The Hindu dynasty topped the Rich List for the fourth time and has the highest individual wealth in the history of the record to date.

The wealth list of writers continues to be led by Scottish-based author of the unprecedented Harry Potter novel series, Joanne K. Rowling, to whom the editors of Rich List 2022 attribute £ 850 million in wealth, £ 30 million more than last year.

JK Rowling, who was still unemployed in a social rental apartment in Edinburgh out of 70 pounds a week in the early 1990s, is by far the richest novelist in the world today.

According to the editors of Rich List 2022, based on his income, Rowling, 56, could already have joined the club of British billionaires, and that was not because he was extremely generous in his support for various charities and programs.

The compilers of this year’s asset list have estimated that more than a billion of JK Rowling’s books have earned an additional £ 200 million from the eight original Harry Potter film adaptations so far.

Sir Paul McCartney continues to lead this year’s list of the richest British musicians and composers.

Former Beatles bassist and songwriter Rich List 2022 editors estimate he currently has £ 865 million in his bank account, £ 45 million more than last year.

There was no change in second, third or fourth place either: after McCartney, U2, Lord Andrew Lloyd-Webber and Sir Elton John continue to finish in the music charts with £ 625 million, £ 495 million and £ 395 million respectively.

The top ten music field also includes Sting (£ 320 million), Sir Mick Jagger and Keith Richards (£ 318 million and £ 303 million respectively), Olivia and Dhani Harrison (£ 295 million), Sir Ringo Starr (£ 285 million) and Ed Sheeran. (£ 260 million).

(Source: marmalade.co.uk; MTI | Image: pixabay.com)