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Mixed Fortunes For CIs Wealthiest Residents

The Sunday Times Rich List reveals it's been a mixed year for the five wealthiest residents of the Channel Islands...

The Barclay family continue to rank the richest, with a £6.418 billion fortune.  

Their wealth has increased by £213 million in the past 12 months.

That's despite Brecqou owner Sir Frederick (88), whose twin brother Sir David died in 2021, being involved in lengthy and expensive court battles in recent years.

Just this week he has been back at the High Court in London in a wrangle over a £100m settlement to his ex-wife.

Rob Watts, who compiles the list, says the family  - whose interests include the Telegraph newspaper and London's Ritz Hotel  -  continue to prosper:

"Sometimes people think about newspapers a bit like football clubs.  They are nice trophy assets to have, but they are hard to run in a profitable way.  The Barclay family have managed to do that with the Telegraph - there are some good numbers coming out of there.  And then their retail arm  - ShopDirect and Very  - have also continued to do well."

Glenn Gordon and family - of William Grant & Sons  - are second, and Jersey's wealthiest - with £4.6 billion.  They have made an extra £1.2bn in the past year, according to the STRL.  It puts them in the UK top 50.

"Do not underestimate the appeal of good whisky to a global audience.  That business continues to thrive on exports. Beautiful Scottish whisky is liked from Edinburgh to Beijing!"

Guernsey residents Douw Steyn and family  - who're behind Compare the Market  - move up to third (£2.1bn), overtaking Jersey's Chris and Sarah Dawson from homeware retailer The Range, who have suffered a reported £225 million decline in their £2bn wealth 

Jersey-based MoneySuperMarket founder Simon Nixon again completes the list of the Channel Islands' top five billionaires, though his wealth has dropped by £100m to £1.825bn.

The 68-page special edition of The Sunday Times Magazine reveals the wealth of the 350 richest people in Britain in its 35th annual edition.

The minimum needed to be featured in the rankings is £350m.

For the first time in 14 years the number of billionaires registered in the UK has fallen.

"Two years ago we raised concerns about an unsettling boom in the fortunes of the very wealthy that continued unchecked during the political instability around Brexit and the pandemic. This is not a crash - but there are household names who have lost vast sums over the past year. The bursting of the tech bubble, the end of rock bottom interests and the jitters creeping through the banking industry have all taken their toll.  

“The super rich don't exist in a vacuum. Many small investors lost money in some of their overblown stock market floats. Many people also work for their businesses. Financial losses for billionaires can have implications for us all." 

Rishi Sunak and his wife lost five hundred thousand pounds a day in the last year, but they've still got an estimated £529 million.

They're nowhere near the wealthiest though. The Hinduja family and their £35 billion tops the chart.

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