When you're that rich, perhaps it doesn't matter but three of the West's wealthiest people have slipped down the ratings in the Sunday Times Rich List – thanks largely to the vagaries of the stock market.
Bristol-based Hargreaves Lansdown co-founder Peter Hargreaves’ personal estimated wealth fall below £1bn in the past 12 months. It dropped £190m to £830m as shares in his FTSE-100 financial services giant slipped from around 646.5p a year ago to 524.5p today – although they have been even lower.
Peter, 65, who stepped down as managing director last year but remains an executive director and the company figurehead, has a stake estimated to be worth around £748m. This means he has slipped from 65th to 90th in the rich list. But given the underlying strength of the business, which continues to grow inexorably with more than £26bn now under management, it's something over which this no-nonsense Lancastrian is unlikely to lose any sleep.
His co-founder, Stephen Lansdown, 59 – probably better known locally as the former chairman of Bristol City football club, now lives in the Channel Islands. He sold shares worth £47m in 2009 and a further £58m worth in 2010, to finance projects such as the club’s proposed new stadium at Long Ashton.
Since stepping down as Hargreaves Lansdown’s chairman, he has taken a backseat in the business. His stake is now said to be worth £469m and his personal wealth to have fallen by £201m to £549m, placing him 152nd in the rich list, down from 90th last year – a position coincidentally now occupied by Peter Hargreaves.
Elsewhere Sir David McMurtry, whose Renishaw metrology, spectroscopy and precision engineering business is based at Wotton-under-Edge, has slipped from 189th last year to 229th this time. His wealth is estimated to be down by £43m from £425m to £382m. His company, a world leader in metrology (the science of measurement), is now estimated to be worth £975m with Sir David's stake standing at £352m. This time last year the shares were hovering around the £17.67 mark whereas today they were down 29p at £14.51.
Overall, the rich list shows that the total fortune of the 1,000 wealthiest people in the country has risen by just under 5% since 2011, to £414bn. That exceeds the previous record of £412.8bn set in 2008, which came just a few months before the financial crash from which the wider British economy has yet to recover.
