Danish billionaire tops Sunday Times rich list in Scotland with £7.7bn fortune

Danish billionaire Anders Holch Povlsen has been named the richest man in Scotland for the fourth year in a row.

Mr Povlsen, the CEO of the international retail clothing chain Bestseller and the largest shareholder in ASOS, increased his wealth by £974m last year – bringing his net worth to £7.7bn.

Mr Povlsen is closely followed in second place by whisky tycoon Glenn Gordon and Family, whose firm is known for brands like Glenfiddich and Balvenie.

Sir Ian Wood and family remain in third place, having seen their fortune increase by £3m to just over £1.9bn.

Lady Philomena Clark and family, owners of car retailer Arnold Clark, jump up to fourth spot, followed by Highland Spring owner Mahdi Al-Tajir.

Media and television personality Georgia Toffolo, who is married to BrewDog entrepreneur James Watt, ranked top in Scotland for the richest under 40 category, with a wealth of £425m.

The 76-page special edition of The Sunday Times Magazine reveals the largest fall in the billionaire count in the guide’s 37-year history, from a peak of 177 in 2022 to 156 this year.

The number of billionaires has dropped for three successive years – but this year’s decline is the sharpest yet.

This year’s list of 350 individuals and families together hold combined wealth of £772.8bn — 3% down on last year.

Sir Elton John, Lord Lloyd-Webber, Sir Mick Jagger, Keith Richards, Euan Blair, Sir Lewis Hamilton and Sir Christopher Nolan all appear in the annual survey.

The combined wealth in the 37th annual edition is £772.8bn – a sum larger than the annual GDP of Switzerland.

The minimum entry level flatlines at £350m – another indicator of a subdued year.

Robert Watts, compiler of the Sunday Times Rich List, said: “The Sunday Times Rich List is changing. Our billionaire count is down and the combined wealth of those who feature in our research is falling.

“We are also finding fewer of the world’s super-rich are coming to live in the UK.

“This year we were also struck by the strength of criticism for Rachel Reeves’s Treasury. We expected
the abolition of non-dom status would anger affluent people from overseas.

“But homegrown young tech entrepreneurs and those running centuries-old family firms are also warning of serious consequences to a range of tax changes unveiled in last October’s budget.

“Our research continues to find a wide variety of self-made entrepreneurs building fortunes not just from
artificial intelligence, video games and new technologies but also mundane, everyday items such as
makeup, radiators and jogging bottoms.

“We know many of our readers find these people and their stories inspiring — especially the many who had tough starts or setbacks to their lives and careers.”