Rich List 2017 Billionaires
129 £ 1.02bn £ 480 m ▲
LORD EDMISTON
Car sales and propertyEdmiston has built up a £1bn empire from a £6,000 redundancy
cheque. A former bank clerk and trained accountant, he became
finance director of the sports car ma ker Jensen Motors, and
when it went bankrupt he used his payout to set up International
Motors. Later the Birmingham-based business acquired the UK
franchises for Subaru and Isuzu vehicles. These days Edmiston,
70, is chairman while his son Andrew, 47, is managing director of
the operation, which made profits of £149.8m on £571m sales in
2015 and has assets of £646.7m. Edmiston senior was made a
Conservative life peer in 2011 but retired from the House of Lords
in 2015. A strong supporter of Brexit, he donated £1m to the
"leave" campaign groups last year. Edmiston is Britain’s first
overtly Christian billionaire and founded the charity Christian
Vision, which aims to convert a billion people to the faith via radio
and social media. He once said: “In earlier times, wealth was seen
as the blessing of God.” 2016: £540m, 215=130 £ 1,017 m £ 155 m ▲
RAJ, TONY AND HARPAL MATHARU AND FAMILY
Property and HotelsThe low-key Matharu brothers — Raj, 59, Tony, 56, and Harpal, 60
— have built their 17-strong chain of Grange Hotels , all but one (in
Berkshire) in prime London locations, by converting offices into
four- and five-star boltholes. While largely sidestepping public
hoopla, director Tony has recruited celebrities including actress
Gillian Anderson for his Indian Ocean Disaster Relief charity and
has been chairman of the City Lord's Taverners since 2009.
When the brothers started in hospitality, in 1980, “I hadn’t even
stayed in a hotel, as far as I can recall,” Tony has said. Their
flagship, the Grange St Paul’s, has a female-friendly wing aimed
at businesswomen, with rooms serviced by female staff, added
security — and extra-long hairdryer cables. In 2015-16 profits
tripled to £49.7m on £130.4m turnover at their company
Globalgrange, and its land and buildings have a net value of
£986.5m. We add £30m for other wealth. 2016: £862m, 132131 £1.01bn No change ■
NICHOLAS RODITI AND FAMILY
InvestmentRoditi, 71, has a £333.3m family stake in Workspace Group, a
£1.22bn London real estate investment trust. He worked closely
with billionaire financier George Soros and the magic must have
rubbed off. The Zimbabwe-born former fund manager owns
holdings in seven quoted companies, including the online
retailers Ocado and AO World, and a £600m share in Russian
energy giant Unified Energy Systems. Roditi and his art historian
wife, Pamela, 64, also have stakes in the private operations PGI
and Belvedere Realty Investments. 2016: £1.01bn, 116132 £1.005bn £205m ▲
NIKLAS ZENNSTROM
Internet and softwareThe video chat and voice-call service Skype was co-founded by
London-based Swede Zennstrom, 51, who received hefty
windfalls after share sales in 2005 and 2010. His £617m Mayfair
venture capital operation Atomico has invested in about 25
technology start-ups including a motoring website featuring the
former Top Gear trio Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and
James May. A competitive and successful sailor, Zennstrom
studied engineering and computer science at university in
Sweden, before starting the file-sharing service Kazaa in 1999
and selling it three years later. He leads the European Tech
Alliance, a group of IT companies seeking to accelerate
development of the digital economy. 2016: £800m, 139133= £1bn No change ■
VLADIMIR MAKHLAI
IndustryMakhlai, 79, a Russian engineer and entrepreneur, has lived in
London since 2006. He took a controlling stake in 1992 in the
world’s largest ammonia producer, Togliattiazot, and retired in
2011, being replaced by his son Sergei. 2016: £1bn, 117=133= £ 1,000 m £ 300 m ▲
MOHSIN AND ZUBER ISSA
Fuel distributionNIKLAS ZENNSTROM
Entry 132, £1.005bnPumped up: Zuber, above
right, and Mohsin Issa took
garage forecourts “to the
next level”The Issa brothers have fuelled their £1bn fortune by
putting some forethought into the garage forecourt. By
teaming up with brands such as Starbucks, Burger King,
Subway and Greggs, they offer customers the option of
filling their appetite as well as their tank at their Euro
Garages outlets, often without leaving their car. The
Blackburn-based business is the European Union’s largest
independent fuel retailer following a merger last October.
Zuber, 44, and Mohsin, a year older, bought their fi rst
petrol station on a busy road in Bury in 1995 and wanted to
go one better than their father, who ran a garage in the
1980s. Zuber felt if they went beyond the “bog-standard
kiosk that always charged too much for tobacco and
confectionery, we could take it to the next level”.
With £150,000 in savings and family contributions, they
put in a grocery store and newsagent. The garage “didn’t
exactly light the blue touchpaper early on”, said Zuber, but
by the end of its fi rst year it was making £50,000 on a
£2.5m turnover. E xpansion followed, culminating in last
year’s deal with European Forecourt Retail Group, creating
a giant with 1,467 garages — 341 in the UK and more across
France and the Benelux countries — with annual sales of
€6bn (£5.1bn). As growth continues, the chain opened its
fi rst KFC drive-through in Preston in March.
The brothers grew up in a two-up, two-down semi-
detached house in Blackburn, the sons of Gujarati
immigrants who came to Britain in the 1960s. Zuber always
hoped to start a business but never dream t “it would get to
the scale it is today”. The Issas own the majority of Euro
Garages; the rest belongs to a private equity group. Profi ts
soared to £34.7m on £815.6m sales in 2014-15 and the
brothers sold a stake worth about £700m before the recent
continental expansion. 2016: £700m, 164=50 • thesundaytimes.co.uk/richlist