LONDON: Gopi Hinduja and his family are the richest people in the UK with a wealth of £35billion, according to the Sunday Times Rich List 2023.
The Hinduja family – who are behind the Indian conglomerate Hinduja Group – have topped the list for the second year in a row as their fortune jumped by more than £6billion.
Their wealth also marks the largest fortune ever recorded in 35 editions of the Sunday Times Rich List – but it comes just days after Srichand, the eldest of the four Hinduja brothers, died aged 87.
Srichand Hinduja, the Indian-born billionaire leader of a global business empire and the patriarch of the United Kingdom’s wealthiest family, was known by his initials ‘SP’.
“SP was a visionary titan of industry and business, humanitarian and philanthropist … He touched countless lives on his path, and we are forever grateful for the time we cherished with him,” Hinduja’s daughters Shanu and Vinoo said in a statement carried by leading British dailies on May 19.
He was chairman of the eponymous business group which owns public companies in India with interests in banking, chemicals, software and commercial vehicles.
The Hinduja Group, which employs 200,000 people across more than 30 countries, was founded in 1914 by Parmanand Deepchand Hinduja, who traded in carpets and dried fruit from Iran before his sons Srichand and Gopichand shifted their base to the UK in the 1970s.
Sir Jim Ratcliffe, who is currently in a battle to take control of Manchester United, is this year’s highest climber and comes in second place in the Sunday Times Rich List with an estimated fortune of £29.7billion.
