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Boom time for the rich Asians
The year now about to go into history would be remembered by the wealthy for a long time.
Britain's rich enjoyed a boom time in 2004. The year now about to go into history would be remembered by the wealthy for a long time. Not since the dotcom boom of the late 1990s fortunes grew so much and so fast. The biggest tribute to the enterprise of the Indians all over the world was the publication for the first time of the list of 40 richest by Forbes.
In Britain, rich Asians were the beneficiary too of the booming economy and most of them who have been in the rich lists for some years moved up a few notches. But the fastest mover proved to be the Indian-origin steel baron Lakshmi Niwas Mittal. When the year 2004 started he was the second largest steel producer and was at number five with £3.5 billion fortune in the Times List of 1000 wealthy Britons. He was, of course, number one among Asians, the honour the Hinduja brothers enjoyed for a long time.
As the year ends, Mittal is the biggest steel producer in the world and also the richest Briton with £11.2 billion wealth. The Hinduja Brothers have also crossed their fortune of £2,100 million, which was estimated by the Times.
Lord Swraj Paul is destined to improve his assets dramatically with acquisitions in Europe in recent months. So has Jasminder Singh, chairman of the UK Edwardian Radisson Group, who bought the prestigious Mayfair Intercontinental Hotel to add to his chain of other luxury hotels. The others with the rising graphs include Sir GK Noon and Joginder Sanger who has built a luxury hotel in Regent Street to add to his already existing three other hotels.
The brothers Vijay and Bikhu Patel are also booming in their pharmaceuticals empire. There are also quite a few Indians who are very rich but do not want to be named in the lists.
No definite estimates would be available before March end but the forecast is that the number of Indian millionaires in the rich lists of 2005 will go much beyond 35 in the lists last year. In fact unlike 2003, no Indian-origin rich saw his fortune slide down.
