LONDON -Three prominent Indian businessmen have taken a fall in Britain’s top 10 rich list — two of them mainly in ranking and one in fortune.
The Hinduja brothers — Srichand and Gopichand have been toppled as Britain’s richest.
Warner Music owner Len Blavatnik jumped three places from last year to become Britain’s richest man with a £13.17 billion fortune.
Sri and Gopi Hinduja, who occupied the top slot last year, were pushed down to the second spot despite their fortune rising by £1.1 billion to £13 billion.
There is also bad news for steel baron Lakshmi Niwas Mittal who is now Britain’s 7th richest- a fall from rank 3 in the last year’s list. Mittal saw his fortunes plummet by over £1 billion in just one year and is now worth £9.2 billion.
Prakash Lohia jumped the rankings too standing at 34th this time as against 45th in the last list. He is valued at £2.84 billion — up by £730 million from last year.
Mining giant Anil Agarwal who is now worth £1.1 billion also saw his fortunes plummet by £594 million as he is pushed down to rank 92 — a fall from 49 last year.
Navin and Varsha Engineer who made their fortune in pharmaceuticals are ranked 93 — a massive jump from 123 in last year’s list. They are now worth £1.1 billion — up by £290 million from last year.
Hoteliers Jasminder Singh is valued at £910 million and is ranked 122 while pharma giants Bhiku and Vijay Patel are ranked 183rd with wealth of £510 million.
Biocon’s Kiran Mazumdar Shaw made an entry to the rich list for the first time. She is ranked 139th and is worth £790 million.
Britain’s head of state and monarch the Queen, who topped the first rich list in 1989, has dropped out of the top 300 for the first time.
Valued at £340 million, the Queen is ranked 302 — a fall from 285 last year.
There are now 117 billionaires on the list, up from 104 in 2014, with 80 of them living in London.
Nearly 35 of these individuals are of Indian-origin, with five new entrants in 2015.
The other new Indian origin entrants to this list include investor Ashish Thakkar who is ranked 217 with wealth worth £500 million along with industrialist Gautam Thapar.
International security magnate Dr Diwan Rahul Nanda with an estimated wealth of £205 million, up from 2014’s £195 million has entered the list for the fourth consecutive year.
Dr Nanda climbed 24 places breaking through the £200 million mark — from £195 million in 2014 and £187 million in 2013.
Dr Nanda has been the bodyguard for stars such as Michael Jackson and Angelina Jolie and obtained a PHD in Martial Arts from the University of Massachusetts.
Chelsea Football Club owner Roman Abramovich comes in at number 10 on the list with a fortune of £7.29 billion, down £1.23 billion on last year while Virgin boss Sir Richard Branson has seen his wealth rise from £3.6 billion to £4.1 billion, making him 20th richest in Britain.
Meanwhile NRI industrialist Lord Swaraj Paul held on to his 47th rank with an estimated wealth of £2.2 billion.
Other Indians in the list include food industry tycoons Ranjit and Baljinder Boparan at 608 with £160 million, fashion trader Nitin Passi at 723 with £133 million and financial services expert Lord Verjee at 754 with £125 million.
Talking about the Hindujas, Sunday Times Rich List said: “The wedding of a Hinduja son in Mumbai cost £15 million. That was small change for the brothers, who recently purchased the Royal Bank of Scotland’s jewellery and diamond financing business in India for an undisclosed sum. It has a loan book worth nearly £500 million pounds.”
Hinduja brothers also bought Winston Churchill’s iconic Old War Office building which has more than 1,000 rooms and two-and-a-half miles of corridors and had escaped largely unscathed even after being bombed eight times during World War II.
This year’s richest Blavatnik is a Ukraine-born businessman whose investments range from metals and oil to music publishing and digital media. He lives in a £41-million pound home in London and has donated £75 million to Oxford University to build the Blavatnik School of Government.
Actor George Clooney has been included in the list for the first time thanks to his marriage to British-Lebanese human rights lawyer Amal Alamuddin. They are number 790 on the list, being valued at £121 million. Author JK Rowling features at 193 on the list, her wealth increasing from £570 millon last year to £580 million.
