This twice married, Hampstead born property titan acquired British Land for £1 million in 1970 from the corporate raider Jim Slater. (more…)
Category: TYCOONS
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Sir John Ritblat FRICS, FSVA
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Rich Ricci
This “ebullient” American’s name is most apt. A former Barclays bank executive who likes to wear sunglasses come rain or shine, Ricci retired to a Kentish mansion at 49 and supposedly travels by private jet to Dublin every weekend as he “just love[s] Irish racing”. With 40 horses in training and a take home total of £44 million in 2010 alone, he needn’t and doesn’t do things by half and even once named a horse Fatcatinahat in honour of an article The Independent ran on him. Whilst Bob may have had the Diamond position during their days at the bank, it is Ricci who remains truly Rich. -
Richard Desmond (nicknamed “Mr Badger”)
This twice married, self-made billionaire publisher and philanthropist is a polarising force. Desmond’s portfolio has at various times included titles as diverse as the Daily Express, OK!, Asian Babes and Penthouse and this is used against him by enemies like Tom Bower who have also claimed that he’s “violent and dishonest”. Though some might loathe this Montecristo loving tycoon for his “devil don’t care attitude”, we salute him for taking a “no prisoners” approach and for standing up against the “useless, backbiting” Press Complaints Commission and the hapless Leveson inquiry. He occasionally drums with Roger Daltrey and of Rupert Murdoch states: “I like [him] because he’s bold and has a go and he leads from the front”. -
Howard Raymond
He’s taken action against 16 newspapers as: “If they tell lies, I sue them” and another court case resulted in Michael Winterbottom having to change the name of a film about his father, the club owner, pornographer and property tycoon Paul Raymond. Termed by some as the new “King of Soho”, Raymond launched a London dry gin of the same name in 2013. -
Richard Caring
Of Italian-Jewish descent, Caring is of the “supermarket-sweep” school of empire building. This billionaire started out in the rag trade but now controls the majority of the top restaurants and clubs in Central London. He survived the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and viewed that to be a wakeup call. Since then he’s donated millions to charity and focused on his two passions: golf and shooting. This buccaneering businessman generally passes on breakfast and lunch and lives between a converted stable block set in 500 acres near Dulverton and a mansion on The Bishops Avenue. What will he buy next? -
Charlene de Carvalho-Heineken
She owns a controlling interest in the world’s third largest brewer and is married to the child star of Lawrence of Arabia, Michel de Carvalho. They live together in London with their five children, are said to be worth £5.5 billion but live “quite modestly.” Of meeting his wife, de Carvalho commented: “I met the girl of my dreams, complete with free beer. I didn’t realise then that marriage is not just about free beer.” -
Urs Schwarzenbach
This Swiss born son of a printer has spent over £85 million buying up properties in the Henley-on-Thames area of Oxfordshire. Schwarzenbach also owns 123,000 acres in Australia, 26,000 acres in Scotland and has his own polo team, the Black Bears. This financier’s foreign exchange dealership, Interexchange, is the biggest in Switzerland and betting against the dollar has brought much success. He supposedly even named his Gulfstream G650 “George” as “ultimately it was Bush who paid for it.” Whilst Schwarzenbach’s Grand Hotel Dolder in Zurich wins plaudits galore. an investment in Mayfair’s Café Grand Prix was less successful. It is, however, for philanthropy and discretion that Schwarzenbach and his wife, a former Miss Australia, are known best. -
Wafic Saïd
This billionaire was born in Damascus in 1939 and declares his loves to be music, architecture, art and horse racing. His home is the £50 million neo-Georgian mansion Tusmore Park near Bicester in Oxfordshire and he supposedly paid Robbie Williams in excess of a million to perform at his daughter’s May 2012 wedding to PR Khaled Khawaja at The Palace of Versailles. Saïd was one of Margaret Thatcher’s biggest supporters but is also said to have been a confidant of Peter Mandelson. As chairman of Saïd Holdings Limited, he presides over an empire with investments in hedge funds and real estates but he’s better known for the £23 million endowment he provided to establish the Saïd Business School in Oxford in 1996. -
James Sherwood
This Kentuckian buccaneer founded Sea Containers in 1965. He is best known though buying the Hotel Cipriani in Venice for less than £1 million “on a whim” and reviving the Venice-Simplon-Orient-Express. A true perfectionist with an attention to detail unlike any other, Sherwood was victorious in 2010 in a battle with the Cipriani family over their using his hotel’s name in London and also founded Harry’s Bar in Mayfair with Mark Birley. He is married to the leading expert on botanical art, Dr Shirley Sherwood OBE, and was once stranded at 16,000 feet in the Andes with Princess Michael of Kent after his helicopter had to make an emergency landing. -
Crispin Odey
He founded Odey Asset Management in 1991 and now manages some $6.2 billion of assets. This graduate of Christ Church, Oxford was first married to Rupert Murdoch’s daughter, Prudence, but after divorcing her Odey formed a union with a fellow financier, Nichola Pease. The couple, termed “The City’s Posh and Becks,” live between Chelsea and Gloucestershire. They hit the press in September 2012 when they applied for planning permission to build a “rather grandiose” hen house, costing some £150,000, in the grounds of their Grade II listed mansion, Eastbach Court.