As the region's working rich holds steady in wobbly economic conditions, Philip Beresford reports on their growing wealth and changing circumstances
Another excellent year to report for the North West's working rich. The wealth of the Top 100 in Insider's Rich List has risen in 2007 to a record £315.65bn, up £31.78bn on 2006's total of £313.88bn. This is a 12.7 per cent rise (down though on the 17.9 per cent rise in 2006) - impressive indeed given the storm clouds gathering on the economic front domestically and internationally. The bottom line entry point for our 2007 list is slightly down from £335m to £334m, but the average wealth at £3156m is much higher than last year's £3138m.Despite oil prices again nudging near a record and higher interest rates, not to mention a debt crunch that is laying low the private equity and takeover boom of the last couple of years, our multimillionaires show no sign yet of buckling under the strain. Indeed profits seem to be holding up surprisingly well and the share prices of the quoted millionaires have not nosedived in the recent stock market gyrations.
True there was some worry when Simon Nixon floated his Moneysupermarket.com in July 2007 and the shares fell sharply in what was the biggest internet float since the heady days of the dot.com boom. But Nixon's stake and sale proceeds in the float leave him with a healthy £3428m fortune. That was after he spent £3162m buying out his former partner Duncan Cameron in a shrewd move that allowed the float to proceed.
The North West Rich List is still headed by the formidable John Whittaker. In the last year we reckon his wealth has risen by £3200m to £31.5bn. Even then we may be rather conservative. Whittaker's skill of buying undervalued assets meant he was in at airports and docks long before foreign predators or private equity buyers circled. His next battleground could be green energy. Peel recently released a report saying that a Mersey barrage could provide enough power for 260,000 homes. With Whittaker's weight behind it, a barrage could well happen with huge job opportunities and development of whole new technologies.
The future prosperity of the likes of Whittaker or Nixon is vital for the financial health of all us mere mortals in the region, from the Scottish borders to Cheshire, taking the Pennines as our natural eastern boundary. We concentrate on the real wealth creators, creating not just their own wealth, but the jobs and profits on which we can all thrive. By our reckoning, the Top 100 employ well over 100,000 people, mostly concentrated in our region.
One of the great strengths of the North West's economy is still its relative diversity. Our 100 working rich also follow this pattern, although the property boom of late has increased the numbers of property and construction tycoons to 37 (two years ago it was 33 and last year 35). It is still easily the largest sector here. Retailing and distribution accounts for 20. Encouragingly, industry, including the high tech sector, is on the rise again with 19 this year against 15 last year. But the strength of sterling against the dollar will make the job of the North West's industrialists even harder.
Among our new entries in 2007 are tycoons who embody this new-look economy. At £350m we have Steve and Paul Walsh, two brothers who have made a £3335m fortune from the internet. Or there is Philip Day, a retail expert who has transformed the Edinburgh Woollen Mill retail operation. Carole Nash, the insurance tycoon, who spotted a niche in insuring motorbike riders, has left the list after a brief appearance in 2006, having sold the company to a large French insurer for around £370m.
But even her disappearance cannot dent the inexorable rise in female entrepreneurs among our working rich. In 2007 we have 11 against ten in 2006 and six in 2005. It is still too few, but a welcome uplift to a growing band that also includes the redoubtable Doreen Lofthouse of Lozenges fame in Fleetwood and Ann Yerburgh, who chairs Daniel Thwaites, the Blackburn brewing-to-pubs group. The great bulk of the working rich have made the money themselves: just 21 (one down on 2006) actually inherited their wealth. This is far higher than any other rich list, notably The Sunday Times Rich List covering the UK as a whole (barely 70 per cent self made)
Also in: September 2007
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