Asian business people living in Britain have demonstrated staggering wealth creation in the past year, according to the Sunday Times Rich List, published today.
The list demonstrates the growing stature of London as the financial capital of the world, as super-rich expatriates including Russia’s Roman Abramovic, Sweden’s Hans Rausing family and Iran David Khalili – all in the top 10 of the Rich List – chose to maintain their residence in the city.
Lakshmi Mittal, the Calcutta-born steel magnate is Britain’s richest man for the third year running with a fortune of £19.25 billion ($38.5 billion), up from £14.9 billion last year. His greatest success this year was Mittal Steel’s takeover of Arcelor, to create a steel giant that is now responsible for around 10% of the world’s total production.
The Hinduja brothers, Sri and Gopi, jointly secured fourth place on the Rich List with a £6.2 billion ($12.4 billion) fortune. The pair, which almost doubled the size of their property and finance empire this year, secured their place in London society by buying a £58 million property once owned by the Queen just up the road from Buckingham Palace.
Iranian-born David Khalili is fifth on the Rich List with a fortune of £5.8 billion ($11.6 billion). In just a year, he has grown his wealth by £5.2 billion by extending his Midas touch for investing in Islamic art with an equally shrewd eye for exclusive property deals. His collection of Islamic art is estimated by the Sunday Times to extend to 20,000 items, which have rocketed in value as the genre has become fashionable.
The top five Asian and Middle Eastern entries on the Rich List account for over £34 billion ($67.9bn), making them the richest society in Britain. Only three British born families make it into this year’s top 10.
But the wealth of Asians living in Britain pales in comparison to the top five Arab families in the world.
According to the Arabian Business Rich List
, the top five Arabs account for a combined wealth of £58.3 billion ($116.6).
The entire searchable Sunday Times Rich List can be viewed online from tomorrow (Monday) at
www.timesonline.co.uk/richlist
.
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