London, May 16: Britain’s King Charles III saw his wealth grow by around GBP 30 million over the past year to hit GBP 640 million in the 2025 ‘Sunday Times Rich List’ released on Friday, with the 76-year-old monarch climbing 20 places to rank 238th alongside former prime minister Rishi Sunak and his wife Akshata Murty.
The annual tally of the country’s 350 wealthiest individuals and families was topped for the fourth consecutive year by the Indian-origin Hinduja family, with an estimated fortune of GBP 35.3 billion, despite taking a hit of GBP 2 billion since May 2024.
“Awarding licences to build wind farms has helped the Crown Estate double its profits, increasing the sovereign grant, which funds the royal family’s official activities,” the newspaper notes with reference to Charles’ boosted fortunes.
“We exclude the majority of royal assets from the King’s valuation because they are owned ‘in the right of the Crown’ and are not personal holdings. His Balmoral and Sandringham estates in Scotland and Norfolk, as well as an investment portfolio also inherited from his late mother [Queen Elizabeth II], account for the bulk of his wealth,” it notes.
Meanwhile, Sunak saw a dent in his family fortunes since last year with Murty’s stake in Infosys losing some of its value on the stock market, but the couple’s combined estimated fortunes of GBP 640 million means they improved their rank from last year’s 245th.
“Since leaving Downing Street, Sunak has taken a part-time role at Stanford University and signed up to the lucrative Washington Speakers Bureau,” reads ‘The Sunday Times’ analysis.
“His wife’s stake in Infosys, her father’s Bangalore-based IT firm, paid out GBP 7.5 million of dividends last year but has lost some of its value. The couple have launched a charity to tackle numeracy problems,” it adds.
Besides the Hinduja family, the top 10 of the 2025 ‘Sunday Times Rich List’ sees another set of India-born brothers, David and Simon Reuben, build on their wealth to rise to second place from last year’s third, with a fortune estimated at around GBP 26.87 billion.
At No. 8 is NRI tycoon of Arcelor Mittal steelworks Lakshmi N. Mittal, who holds on to his rank with an estimated GBP 15.44 billion. Vedanta Resources’ industrialist Anil Agarwal with an estimated GBP 7.5 billion is at No. 25.
Other Indian-origin billionaires on the 2025 list include textiles entrepreneur Prakash Lohia at No. 31 with an estimated GBP 6.02 billion; retail majors Mohsin and Zuber Issa at No. 32 with GBP 6 billion; and pharma chiefs Navin and Varsha Engineer at 48 with GBP 3.45 billion. Among the top 100 richest Britons are brothers Simon, Bobby and Robin Arora at No. 69 with GBP 2.57 billion and leading NRI industrialist Lord Swraj Paul and family ranked 81st with an estimated wealth of GBP 2 billion.
On the whole, the latest edition of the rich list reveals the sharpest fall in billionaire numbers in its 37-year history – sliding to 156 this year from 165 in 2024.
“This year — the 37th edition — has been one of the toughest to compile due to [US President] Donald Trump’s tariffs and the ensuing stock market turbulence,” said Robert Watts, compiler of the annual rankings for ‘The Sunday Times’.
“It shows the third year in a row that collective wealth has fallen and the biggest drop in the number of UK billionaires in the Rich List history. It is a stark reflection of the state of UK wealth,” he said.
The valuations for this year’s list were carried out between November 2024 and April 2025. (PTI)
