TWO North Wales business moguls have made the top eight richest people in Wales.
Sir Michael Moritz is the richest person in the Wales, according to the new edition of The Sunday Times Rich List, published today.
Second on the list is Simon Nixon - one of Wales' six billionaires - who attended St Richard Gwyn High School in Flint.
Simon Nixon.
He moves up to second place in the Welsh Rich List this year following a successful year for his technology investments.
Mr Nixon made his fortune originally from the Flintshire-based price comparison website, moneysupermarket.com, which he co-founded in 1999.
His fortune is up £450 million on last year’s figure to stand at £1.8 billion.
Steve Morgan, founder of the housebuilders Redrow plc, is seventh on the list with an estimated fortune of £881m, an increase of £130m from the previous year.
Steve Morgan.
Mr Morgan was born in Liverpool and started his first construction company at the age of 21 with a loan of £5,000 from his father.
He founded Redrow, which has its headquarters in Ewloe, an remained a major shareholder after stepping down from the board in March, 2019.
Now as highly regarded for his philanthropy he received a CBE in 2016 for philanthropic services through the work of the Steve Morgan Foundation.
He had previously received an OBE in 1992 for services to the construction industry.
The 76-page special edition of The Sunday Times Magazine reveals the wealth of the 250 richest people in Britain in its 33rd annual edition.
Moritz is one of six billionaires in the Welsh Rich List, who are among a record-breaking total of 171 billionaires in the UK recorded this year, up 24 from 2020, a year-on-year increase that is also a record. The combined wealth of the 171 UK billionaires is £597.269 billion, up £106.582 billion, or 21.7 per cent, on the total wealth of the billionaires in last year’s Rich List.
Cardiff-born Moritz, 66, tops the Welsh Rich List with a fortune put at £3.5 billion, which is more than £450 million up on last year. He joined Sequoia Capital in 1986 and made his billions by spotting the potential for Google, PayPal, Alibaba, WhatsApp, YouTube and a host of other technology titans ahead of anyone else. His £8 million investment in Google peaked at £6.3 billion.
A noted philanthropist, he set up Crankstart, a San Francisco-based foundation with his wife Harriet Heyman, also 66, which gave away $120 million in 2020. It has assets of close to $2 billion for future charitable spending and a survey to mark the 20th edition of The Sunday Times Giving List estimated the couple had given away at least £1.356 billion since 2002. This includes more than £100 million to his alma mater, the University of Oxford, much of which is being used to support students from low-income families.
Llanelli-born Douglas Perkins, 78, has seen the biggest decrease in Welsh wealth in in the last year with his £1.2 billion fortune down by £600m, following a revaluation by the Rich List compilers based on new information about the localised ownership of the Specsavers high street store estate. In 1984, he set up Specsavers with his wife Dame Mary Perkins, 77, in Guernsey. The firm is now a partnership of almost 2,000 locally run businesses providing optical and hearing care in ten countries. There were gross profits of £182.6 million for the main public operation in 2019-20.
The Sunday Times Rich List 2021 is the definitive guide to wealth in the United Kingdom. It charts the wealth of the 250 richest people in the UK. The list is based on identifiable wealth, including land, property, other assets such as art and racehorses, or significant shares in publicly quoted companies.
The Sunday Times Rich List 2021: Wales
1
Sir Michael Moritz
Internet
£3.5bn
Up £453m
2
Simon Nixon
Internet and property
£1.8bn
Up £450m
3
Sir Terry Matthews
Computers
£1.24bn
No change
4
Douglas Perkins and family
Opticians
£1.2bn
Down £600m
5
Henry Engelhardt and Diane Briere de l’Isle
Insurance
£1.126bn
Up £266m
6
David Sullivan and family
Property, football and media
£1.04bn
Down £60m
7
Steve Morgan
Construction
£881m
Up £130m
8
John Deer
Engineering
£823m
Up £383m
The Sunday Times Rich List is compiled by Robert Watts. The complete list will be available to the paper’s digital subscribers and will be online at https://www.thetimes.co.uk/sunday-times-rich-list
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