
All these gains came flooding in despite surging unemployment rates all over Europe, creeping deflation fears and overall economic slowdown. Moreover, it is becoming increasingly competitive for the rich to find a place among the top 1,000 spot, with a minimum fortune of £100 million required. Sunday Times published its list on April 26, revealing the names of 117 billionaires, with 80 of them residing in London.
On top of the list is the Ukrainian businessman Len Blavatnik with £13.17 billion, taking the spot for the very first time as well as pushing the brothers Sri and Gopi Hinduja with £13 billion out of the lead and into the second place.
One of Blavatnik's successful assets includes the Warner Music Group, which was purchased in 2011. The third spot went to the Galen and George Weston and family whose estimated worth is £11 billion.
However, some of the billionaires suffered some losses, including steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal, whose fortune dropped to £9.2 billion and Chelsea Football Club chairman Roman Abramovich's assets plunged to £7.29 billion. The list compiles the individuals' land and property as well as financial assets like shares, but excludes bank accounts.
Willard Gordon Galen Weston, OC, OOnt (born October 29, 1940) is an English-Canadian businessman and philanthropist as well as Executive Chairman of George Weston Limited, a leading food processing and distribution company. W. Galen Weston and family, with an estimated net worth of $US 8.9 billion, are listed as the second wealthiest in Canada and 147th in the world by Forbes magazine (March 2014).[2]
In addition to being one of the country’s leading bakers through wholly owned subsidiary Weston Foods, Galen Weston is also an experienced supermarket retailer who maintains controlling interest in Loblaw Companies, Canada’s largest food retailer, through a family holding company. Weston is also head of the world’s second largest luxury goods retailer as Chairman of Holt Renfrew in Canada and the Selfridges Group, owner of Selfridges in the United Kingdom, Brown Thomas of Ireland, the De Bijenkorf department store chain in the Netherlands, and the recently acquired Ogilvy department store in Montreal. ....continued
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