Billionaire Asos tycoon Anders Holch Povlsen remains richest man in Scotland, according to Sunday Times Rich List

Half of Scotland’s ten billionaires saw their fortunes fall over the last year, according to the Sunday Times Rich List 2022.

The Danish head of Asos, Anders Povlsen, reprised his position as the richest man in Scotland with a £600m addition to his coffers. While based in Denmark, the amount of land he owns in Scotland qualifies him for the list.

Meanwhile, the family owners of North Lanarkshire-based spirits company William Grant and Sons saw their £3.39bn fortune dip by around £200m.

Pharmaceutical giants Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw and John Shaw also saw their family fortune fall by over £400m.

Head of Clyde Bowers, Jim McColl, was forced to concede his billionaire status after losing £4m, leaving him with assets worth £996m.

The compiler of the list, Robert Watts, emphasised that while Scotland’s richest have “fared less well than those elsewhere in the UK”, the wealth of the country’s ten billionaires has still risen.

Newcomers to the group, Greenock billionaires the Easdale Brothers, have amassed a combined net worth of around £1.3bn. The pair were formerly directors of Rangers, and their empire now consists of McGill’s Buses, Blairs Windows, ARC Fleet Services, Clyde Metals and Inverclyde Taxis.

Owners of Dundee-based media firm DC Thomson, the Thomson family, also saw their fortune grow by £314m since 2021 to £1.58bn.

The list revealed that billionaire brothers Sri and Gopi Hinduja are the wealthiest people in the UK, with a net worth of about £28.47bn, jumping by over £11bn in the past year.

Chancellor of the exchequer Rishi Sunak and his billionaire-heiress wife Akshata Murty made the list for the first time in 2022, with their joint £730m fortune driven by Ms Murthy’s £690m stake in Infosys.

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 2% 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.”

Ten richest people in Scotland 2022:

1. Anders Holch Povlsen – £6.5bn

2. Glenn Gordon and family – £3.395bn

3. Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw and John Shaw and family – £2.496bn

4. Sir Ian Wood and family – £1.819bn

5. Mohamed Al Fayed and family – £1.699bn

6. Mahdi al-Tajir – £1.685bn

7. The Thomson family – £1.585bn

8. Sandy and James Easdale – £1.363bn

9. Lady Philomena Clark and family – £1.267bn

10. Trond Mohn and Marit Mohn Westlake and family – £1.245bn