London:
Britain’s King Charles III noticed his wealth develop by round GBP 30 million over the previous yr to hit GBP 640 million within the 2025 ‘Sunday Instances Wealthy Checklist’ launched on Friday, with the 76-year-old monarch climbing 20 locations to rank 238th alongside former prime minister Rishi Sunak and his spouse Akshata Murty.
The annual tally of the nation’s 350 wealthiest people and households was topped for the fourth consecutive yr by the Indian-origin Hinduja household, with an estimated fortune of GBP 35.3 billion, regardless of taking successful of GBP 2 billion since Could 2024.
“Awarding licences to construct wind farms has helped the Crown Property double its income, rising the sovereign grant, which funds the royal household’s official actions,” the newspaper notes as regards to Charles’ boosted fortunes.
“We exclude nearly all of royal belongings from the King’s valuation as a result of they’re owned ‘in the proper of the Crown’ and are usually not private holdings. His Balmoral and Sandringham estates in Scotland and Norfolk, in addition to an funding portfolio additionally inherited from his late mom [Queen Elizabeth II], account for the majority of his wealth,” it notes.
In the meantime, Sunak noticed a dent in his household fortunes since final yr with Murty’s stake in Infosys dropping a few of its worth on the inventory market, however the couple’s mixed estimated fortunes of GBP 640 million means they improved their rank from final yr’s 245th.
“Since leaving Downing Avenue, Sunak has taken a part-time position at Stanford College and signed as much as the profitable Washington Audio system Bureau,” reads ‘The Sunday Instances’ evaluation.
“His spouse’s stake in Infosys, her father’s Bangalore-based IT agency, paid out GBP 7.5 million of dividends final yr however has misplaced a few of its worth. The couple have launched a charity to deal with numeracy issues,” it provides.
Apart from the Hinduja household, the highest 10 of the 2025 ‘Sunday Instances Wealthy Checklist’ sees one other set of India-born brothers, David and Simon Reuben, construct on their wealth to rise to second place from final yr’s third, with a fortune estimated at round GBP 26.87 billion.
At No. 8 is NRI tycoon of Arcelor Mittal steelworks Lakshmi N. Mittal, who holds on to his rank with an estimated GBP 15.44 billion. Vedanta Assets’ industrialist Anil Agarwal with an estimated GBP 7.5 billion is at No. 25.
Different Indian-origin billionaires on the 2025 checklist embody textiles entrepreneur Prakash Lohia at No. 31 with an estimated GBP 6.02 billion; retail majors Mohsin and Zuber Issa at No. 32 with GBP 6 billion; and pharma chiefs Navin and Varsha Engineer at 48 with GBP 3.45 billion. Among the many prime 100 richest Britons are brothers Simon, Bobby and Robin Arora at No. 69 with GBP 2.57 billion and main NRI industrialist Lord Swraj Paul and household ranked 81st with an estimated wealth of GBP 2 billion.
On the entire, the most recent version of the wealthy checklist reveals the sharpest fall in billionaire numbers in its 37-year historical past – sliding to 156 this yr from 165 in 2024.
“This yr – the thirty seventh version – has been one of many hardest to compile because of [US President] Donald Trump’s tariffs and the following inventory market turbulence,” stated Robert Watts, compiler of the annual rankings for ‘The Sunday Instances’.
“It reveals the third yr in a row that collective wealth has fallen and the largest drop within the variety of UK billionaires within the Wealthy Checklist historical past. It’s a stark reflection of the state of UK wealth,” he stated.
The valuations for this yr’s checklist have been carried out between November 2024 and April 2025.
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