Rich List 2017 Billionaires
106 £ 1.202 bn £ 2 m ▲
LORD GRANTCHESTER AND THE MOORES FAMILY
Retailing and football poolsGrantchester, 66, is the grandson of Sir John Moores, founder
of the football pools in Liverpool, whose family later expanded
into mail order and retail. Sales of some Littlewoods stores and
the pools arm initially netted £445m before the remaining
empire was sold in 2002 for £750m to the Barclay brothers (qv).
There is also property in Cheshire, Scotland, London, Harrogate
and, further afield, Texas. 2016: £1.2bn, 90=107= £ 1.2bn £ 100 m ▲
NAVIN AND VARSHA ENGINEER
PharmaceuticalsChemidex, the Surrey pharmaceuticals operation owned by
Engineer, 65, and his wife, Varsha, 62, is making healthy profits.
The couple’s largest four companies made more than £20m
combined last year, with the two biggest businesses holding
£113 m net assets. A former Boots pharmacist, Kenyan-born
Engineer and his wife sold their chemist chain in 1999 for about
£12m and went on to grow Chemidex, which is now easily worth
£1.1bn. There is £100m of other wealth. 2016: £1.1bn, 103=107= £ 1.2bn No change ■
ELLIS SHORT
FinancePremier League football team Sunderland seem doomed to
relegation. Club owner Short, 56, is cutting costs as the club tries
to reduce £140m of debt. He made his fortune with Lone Star , a
Texas-based private equity firm run by John Grayken (qv). In
2003 Short bought Skibo Castle in Scotland for £23m. Through
his Kildare Partners private equity operation he has raised £3bn
to invest in distressed property assets.^ 2016: £1.2bn, 90=109 £ 1.19bn New entry ★
MARTIN NAUGHTON AND FAMILY
Household goods See In numbers, right110 £ 1.183bn £ 67 m▼
WILL ADDERLEY AND FAMILY
Home furnishingAdderley, 45, cut his annual salary to £1 two years ago when he
stepped down as chief executive of Dunelm to become the home
furnishing giant’s deputy chairman. His parents started the
Leicester-based business from a market stall in 1979 and it is now
worth £1.24bn. The family retains a 51% stake valued at £636m,
down £352m on last year, while Adderley’s investment firm WA
Capital showed surging assets of £447 m. 2016: £1.25bn, 87=112 £ 1.176 bn £ 150 m ▲
SIMON NIXON
Internet and propertyNixon, 49, founded the Flintshire-based Moneysupermarket.com
comparison site in 1999. He sold the last of his shares in the
business in March, having netted more than £551m since its
2007 float. Nixon’s property assets are worth at least £330m, his
bond and stock investments stand at £530m and his personal
interests and cash add £250m. Based in Jersey, he has homes in
Los Angeles, Mallorca and London. 2016: £1.026bn, 113113 £ 1.175bn No change ■
NADHMI AUCHI
FinanceAuchi, 79, fled Iraq after an encounter with an enforcer working
for Saddam Hussein’s feared half-brother Barzan Ibrahim
al-Tikriti. Since relocating to the UK, where his base is in Surrey,
Auchi has transformed his Luxembourg-headquartered General
Mediterranean Holding group into a thriving multinational
conglomerate with a $4bn turnover spanning hotels, finance,
telecoms, construction and pharmaceuticals. 2016: £1.175bn, 92IN NUMBERSMARTIN
NAUGHTON
AND FAMILY
Entry 109, £1.19bn
New entry2
kilowatts power
output of most
popular Glen
Dimplex heater6
honorary degrees
Naughton has
received7
employees when the
business began in
197329
brands, including
Belling, Stoves and
Morphy Richards8,500
employees
worldwide18.3m
pounds charitable
donations in 2016 by
Glen Dimplex45m
Dimplex heaters sold
in the UK aloneELLIS SHORT
Entry 107=, £1.2bn“I’ve known suffi ciently
hard times not to be
aff ected by wealth. I’m a
war baby. I was brought
up with rationing”
111 £ 1.18bn £ 30 m ▲
SIR CAMERON MACKINTOSH
EntertainmentWhen Cats pounced onto the West End stage in 1981
Mr Mistoffelees and his fellow felines — brought to life
from TS Eliot’s poems — ended the financial struggles
of Mackintosh, its producer. The impresario, who has
since been knighted, scraped by on a few pounds each
week early on, learning to cook “because I had to”. A
few costly flops down and living in a fiver-a-month
rented flat, he got his big break with Lord Lloyd-Webber
(qv). Cats became one of the longest- running musicals
on either side of the Atlantic, and Mackintosh got the
cream he had been working for. The hits kept coming,
Les Misérables and Miss Saigon among them.
Describing a childhood lacking in silver spoons but
with a (minor) boarding-school education, Enfield-
born Mackintosh said: “Compared with many people
I had a lot, but I didn’t have a trust fund. I had to
borrow £10 here and £20 there.”
His wallet must bulge now. Barely a West End board
gets trodden that Mackintosh, 70, fails to turn a profit
on. He owns eight London theatres and receives a fee
for every professional or am-dram production of his
shows. His main company made £27.8m profit on
£146.7m turnover in 2015-16 and his entertainment
empire is easily worth £1bn.
Private assets, including the 1,630-acre medieval
Stavordale Priory in Somerset, where Mackintosh
lives with his long-term partner, theatre photographer
Michael Le Poer Trench, and last year’s £35m dividend
take him to £1.18bn. 2016: £1.15bn, 95=GETTY
The Sunday Times Magazine • 47