There are a record-number of billionaires in Britain today.
177 billionaires now exist across the UK according to the 2022 Sunday Times Rich List with a combined wealth of £653BN. In comparison to 2021, we now have an additional 6 billionaires.
The Hinduja Family topped the list for the fourth time with brothers Sri and Gopi being valued at £28.4BN, the highest figure recorded in 34 years and £11.4BN higher than their 2021 ranking.
The Hinduja family wealth was created by their father, Parmanand Deepchand Hinduja, who traded goods in the Sindh region of India before moving to Iran in 1919. The brothers then moved the family operations from Iran to London in 1979 which has been their base ever since.
They join the 67% of Single Family Offices in England whose wealth originates from outside of the UK, 22% of which derive from Europe, 15% the Middle East and a further 3% from India according to the Agreus 2020 Family Office Compensation Benchmark Report.
Other than boasting a highly diversified investment portfolio across financial services, transport and communications, the Hinduja family own a portfolio of real estate featuring a home near Buckingham Palace which was purchased from the Queen herself, thought to be worth more than £100M and a historic war office building in Whitehall, set to become a Raffles hotel.
The Hinduja family has followed in the footsteps of many Family Offices throughout the pandemic. By further diversifying their portfolio and taking calculated risks on more niche asset classes such as electric vehicles which Gopi Hinduja is leading the charge on. It is this appetite for risk and decentralisation of investment portfolios which is bringing phenomenal returns to Family Offices and with an £11BN increase in one year, we can only imagine the wealth being created across the Family Office community in the UK.
Can we expect to see more Family Offices established in the UK in 2022?