Sunday Times Rich List: Britain's Richest Get Richer Despite Eurozone Crisis, Lakshmi Mittal Retains Crown

By Sreeja VN | April 29 2012 4:38 AM

Europe's plundering financial crisis has hardly impacted the UK's richest, according to the Annual Sunday Times Rich List.

Reuters

[2010 Rank: 5] Education: BA/BS, St Xavier's College Calcutta, India Fortune: $31.1 billion (up $2.4 billion) Recent Headlines: Spectacular rise in net profits at his steel conglomeration Arcelor Mittal; Spin off of its stainless steel unit; acquisition of Canadian miner Baffinland Iron Mines Corporation; Funding of a 377-foot sculpture called ArcelorMittal Orbit in London's Olympic Park for the 2012 Olympics; Plans to build a 30 million pound eco-mansion on the outskirts of London which designers claim will have zero carbon footprint

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The list reveals that Briton's richest has got richer despite the economic crisis when most of the average Britons' income and savings depleted due to inflation, according to Reuters.

The Sunday Times' 2012 rich list with 1000 wealthiest people in the country has 77 billionaires. The combined wealth of the richest 1000 in the list increased by 4.7 percent this year and amounts to £414 billion ($670 billion). This is the highest recorded by the newspaper's survey.

India-born Lakshmi Mittal (61), CEO of the steel giant Arcelor Mittal, retained the wealthiest Briton crown for the eighth consecutive year.

Mittal's fortunes are valued at £12.7 billion and he remained in the top post despite 27 percent erosion in his family's riches in the last year due to decline in share value of ArcelorMittal, the world's largest steelmaker.

The second position is taken by Uzbek-born billionaire Alisher Usmanov who owns 30 percent of the Arsenal football club with a fortune of 12.3 billion pounds. Third position goes to Russian investor and Chelsea club owner Roman Abramovich for his 9.5 billion pounds fortune.

The richest British-born billionaire is the Duke of Wellington and former Miss UK Kirsty Bertarelli is the richest woman on the list. Bertarelli shares a £7.4 billion fortune with her entrepreneur husband Ernesto.

Several leading entrepreneurs, performers and artistes on the list saw their wealth increasing this year.

The annual list is compiled based on identifiable wealth like land, property, art, racehorses and significant shares in publicly quoted companies. It excludes bank accounts.

The top ten wealthiest Britons in the Sunday Times Rich List are: