Impact of pandemic on economy wipes £54bn off fortunes of UK’s super-rich
THE fortunes of Britain’s super-rich have plummeted by an estimated £54billion due to the economic turmoil caused by the coronavirus.
The 1,000 wealthiest UK people saw their total wealth slashed by almost 7 per cent in just three months.
Scotland’s 12 billionaires – worth almost £22billion – suffered a combined loss of just £154million, according to the Sunday Times Rich List.
This means they have been more shielded from the economic cost of the pandemic than Britain’s 12 richest individuals and families, who have seen their fortunes slide by £842million.
Danish fashion retailer and landowner Anders Povlsen leads Scotland’s rich list with a fortune of £4.73billion.
Spirits industry boss Glenn Gordon and family took the number two slot in Scotland, with £3.186billion. Mr Gordon is chairman of distillers William Grant & Sons. Third on Scotland’s rich list are biotech entrepreneurs John Shaw and Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw.
They saw a rise in their wealth by £119million to £1.808billion. A total of 82 people on the list – including businessman Sir Ian Wood, on £1.7billion, and Harry Potter author JK Rowling, on £795million – are born, based or have their wealth in Scotland. Lady Philomena Clark, chairman of Arnold Clark Automobiles, saw the firm’s value fall by £47million to £1.131billion as the virus affected car sales.
Before the pandemic, chemicals tycoon Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who headed the rich list in 2018, and Sri and Gopi Hinduja, who were the UK’s richest people last year, were on course to top it overall.
But Sir Jim, whose Ineos group owns the Grangemouth petrochemicals plant, saw his fortune slashed by around 33 per cent, falling £6billion to £12.15billion in just three months. The Hinduja brothers also saw £6billion wiped off their wealth, leaving Sir James Dyson to take the top spot as the UK’s richest person for the first time with a fortune of £16.2billion.
Robert Watts, who compiled the list, said: ‘The pandemic is already hitting Scotland’s leading entrepreneurs and business leaders in the pocket. This has profound implications for us all.’