This is Money
26 April 2010, 8:49am
The latest Sunday Times Rich list has revealed how the fortunes of the UK's super rich staged a remarkable recovery in past year as Britain struggled through a shaky economic recovery.
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| Roman empire: Chelsea owner Abramovich held on to second spot. |
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In just a year the collective wealth of the nation's 1,000 richest people increased by 30% and their combined wealth rose by more than £77bn to £333.5bn, the biggest annual rise in the list's 22-year history.
The number of billionaires also rose by ten, to 53. London-based steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal claimed this year's top spot for the sixth consecutive year, after his fortune doubled from £10,800m in 2009 to £22,450m following the recovery in the global steel industry.
Chelsea owner Roman Abramovich stayed second, adding £400m to £7,400m fortune in a year. The richest British-born billionaire, the Duke of Westminster, saw his property fortune increase by £250m to £6,750m, to remain in third place.
Ian Coxon, editor of The Sunday Times Rich List, said Britain's wealthiest had benefited from the improving economic conditions in the last year.
He said: 'It's obvious there's been a real turnaround. The stock market since last year, when we were valuing people with large companies, has gone up by more than 50%.'
The Queen finished equal 245th, crowning a successful year for her share portfolio with a personal fortune totalling £290m, up £20m on 2009.
The highest new entry among women are London-based Norwegian sisters Helen, 44, and Marianne Odfjell, 39, and family, who own a large slice of the Bergen-based Odfjell Drilling group.
The soaring share price of the London-based mining group Vedanta Resources has added £3,500m, an increase of 583% on 2009, to the wealth of Indian-born Anil Agarwal, 57, who moves 60 places up the list to 10th.
Retailers who enjoyed good years to improve their standing on the list included Matalan owner John Hargreaves. Hargreaves, 66, saw his fortune treble to £1.02bn.
It means he regains billionaire status after eight years and is now ranked 51st.
The owners of the Wakefield-based greetings card chain Card Factory, Dean and Janet Hoyle, ranked equal 424th, have seen their fortune rise by 204% to £154m, after they sold their company this month to Charterhouse, the private equity firm.
Julian Dunkerton, 45, ranked equal 354th, boss of the Cheltenham-based Superdry clothes label, saw his fortune leap by 157% to £180m with the floation of the parent company SuperGroup.
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From dropout to tycoon
Another Rich List highloght was Andre Michael - who dropped out of school aged 17 after setting up a company in his bedroom.
Thirteen years later Michael, 30, is worth £130m, the second richest Briton aged 30 or under. He even spent £50,000 flying R&B star Usher from the US to perform at his girlfriend's birthday party.
Mr Michael was an A-Level student in Cheltenham when he set up Fasthosts in 1999 to provide business web services.
I don't think we really imagined quite how successful we were going to be,' he said.
Mr Michael sold up for £45m aged 26 and set up Livedrive, which allows clients to store unlimited files online.
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