The Ten Richest Billionaires in London

The UK’s richest have been named in the annual Sunday Times Rich List.

The list, which features the 1,000 richest people in the UK, showed their wealth had bucked the economic downtown by increasing their collective worth by 18 percent over the last year.

As the rich have got richer, there are now 73 British billionaires—up 53 from last year—and almost level with the record of 75 set in the pre-crisis List of 2008.

London’s Richest

London is proving to be a magnet for the global super-rich. Attracted to London since the 1980s shake up of the City, light taxation and excellent private schools, restaurants, hotels and restaurant have continued to draw the world’s most wealthy.

This year a fortune of at least £70m is needed to get into the ranks of the richest 1,000, compared with £63m in 2010 and £55m in 2008.

We take a look at the top 10 richest in London, which according to the Sunday Times Rich List is defined by being born, living, or having their interests in the capital.

1.   Lakshmi Mittal, Steel, £17,514m,

Number one of the Rich List remains billionaire steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal, who has topped the list since 2005. However his fortune has fallen by nearly £5 billion (22 percent) in the past year, now standing at £17.5 billion. The falling share price of his business AcelorMittal made him the highest faller in the list in terms of total wealth.

2.   Allisher Usmanov, Steel, £12, 400m,

The Rich List’s highest riser in terms of wealth this year. Usmanov was born in Soviet Uzbekistan to a former state prosecutor in Tashkent. He made his money in steel, iron ore—he owns a 47 percent stake in Metalloinvest, Russian’s largest iron ore producer—timber and more recently the internet. Last November, mail.ru, which holds a 2 percent stake in Facebook, Groupon and Zynga, was listed in London raising almost £550m.

3.   Roman Abramovich, Oil and industry, £10,300m

Running for election to parliament in Russia’s far east this year, Abramovich listed his assets as seven properties in Britain, two in America, three in France, four in Russia, as well as £71m in cash in 22 bank accounts and £25m shares. More famously are his £1 billion spending on his football club, Chelsea FC. Still, his net worth is up almost £3,000 m from last year.

4. Leonard Blavatnik, Industry, £6,237

Up from 15 on the list last year, Lyondell Chemical Co, the Houston business owned by the billionaire investor emerged from bankruptcy protection in April 2010. He also has investments in the aluminum and chemical industries. His base is London in his £41m house in Kensington Palace Gardens but he spends the majority of his time in New York.

6. John Fredriksen, Shipping, £6,200m,

Norway’s richest man built his shipping empire in the Iran-Iraq war of the 1980s when his tankers braved the fighting to pick up oil at a he profit. In 1996 he acquired Frontline, worth £5 billion.

7. David and Simon Reuben, Property and internet, £6,176m

Making their fortune in Russia in the 1990s, the Reuben brothers were known as the ‘metal czars’ for their role in reconstructing the country’s aluminum industry. Since then the brothers have been active in the British property market and are looking to float their data centre company, Global Switch, at a value of more than £3 billion.

8. Gopi and Sri Hinduja, Industry and finance, £6,000m

The Hindujas are the highest new entry on the list this year. The Hinduja group started in 1914 by the late Parmanand Hinduja and is now run by his four sons—Gopi and Sri are based in London. Hinduja Automotive made a £90.4 m profit on £984m sales over the last year and is worth over £1 billion.

9. Galen and George Weston and family, Retailing, £6,000m

The British branch of the Weston family’s fortune is led by George Weston and based at Henley-on-Thames. Owner of Associated British Foods (ABF), the Primark chain, Selfridges on Oxford Street, and Fortnum and Mason, the family’s stake in ABF alone is worth £1.77 billion.

10. Charlene and Michel de Carvalho, Inheritance, brewing and banking, £5,400m

The daughter of the late Freddy Heineken inherited the Heineken fortune in 2002 with her banker husband, vice-chairman of Citigroup. The family’s stake in the beer firm is worth £5.1 billion.