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Edinburgh Live
Edinburgh Live
National
Sophie Buchan

Sunday Times Rich List 2022: The 10 richest Scots right now

The Sunday Times have issued their Rich List 2022 naming the top 250 people who are all sitting on a fortune.

The 68-page special edition of The Sunday Times Magazine reveals the wealth of the richest people in the UK as part of its 34th annual edition.

This year there is a record 177 billionaires in the UK - up six from 2021 taking their combined wealth to a staggering £653.122 billion - up £55.853 billion (9.4%) - on the total wealth of the billionaires in last year’s Rich List.

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However for the richest 250 in the UK this year, their overall fortune is said to be worth £710.723 billion compared to £658.089 billion in 2021 - an eight per cent rise on last year.

The top five in the list, issued today (May 18), include Sri and Gopi Hinduja and family worth £28.472 billion, Sir James Dyson and family (£23 billion), David and Simon Reuben and family (£22.265 billion), Sir Leonard Blavatnik (£20 billion) and Guillaume Pousaz (£13.716 billion).

Many Scots have also appeared on the list with Anders Holch Povlsen said to have a fortune worth £6.5 billion and thus the richest person in Scotland.

There are 10 billionaires at the head of the 2022 Scottish Rich List with combined wealth of £23.054 billion - more than a quarter of this is in the hands of Holch Povlsen.

Holch Povlsen is owner of the Danish fashion retailer Bestseller and holds a stake of around 25% in the British online fashion retailer Asos and according to the Sunday Times Rich List 2022, the 49-year-old's wealth increased by £500 million on last year making him Scotland’s largest landowner with more than 220,000 acres.

A more familiar face known to many however is JK Rowling with the Harry Potter author said to have a fortune worth £850 million making her the 12th richest in Scotland and narrowly missing out on the top 10 list.

Joanne Rowling, who is a resident of Edinburgh, added £30 million to her personal fortune since last year with the 56-year-old still said to be making large charitable donations - including £6.7 million last year from her Volant Trust.

Robert Watts, the compiler of The Sunday Times Rich List, said: "Scotland's richest people have fared less well than those elsewhere in the UK, with half of this year's 10 Scottish billionaires seeing their fortunes fall over the past year. The combined wealth of the country’s 10 billionaires is still up, at nearly two per cent on 2021.

"As the economy continues to work through the damage wrought by the pandemic, surging inflation and the disruption to markets caused by the war in Ukraine are now making the business environment difficult.""

The Sunday Times Rich List 2022: The 10 wealthiest in Scotland

The list is based on identifiable wealth, including land, property, other assets such as art and racehorses, or significant shares in publicly quoted companies - it excludes bank accounts, to which the paper has no access.

Scotland

Rank

Name

Source of Wealth

2022 Wealth

Wealth increase/ decrease

1

Anders Holch Povlsen

Fashion: Bestseller and Asos

£6.5bn

Up £500m

2

Glenn Gordon and family

Spirits: William Grant & Sons

£3.395

Down £200m

3

Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw and John Shaw and family

Pharmaceuticals: Biocon

£2.496bn

Down £446m

4

Sir Ian Wood and family

Oil services and fishing

£1.819bn

No change

5

Mohamed Al Fayed and family

Retailing: Harrods

£1.699bn

Down £1m

6

Mahdi al-Tajir

Metals, oil, and water: Highland Spring

£1.685bn

Down £2m

7

The Thomson family

Media: D C Thomson

£1.585bn

Up £314m

8

Sandy and James Easdale

Transport and property

£1.363bn

New entry

9

Lady Philomena Clark and family

Car sales: Arnold Clark

£1.267bn

Up £126m

10

Trond Mohn and Marit Mohn Westlake and family

Industry

£1.245m

Down £14m

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