QPR Co-Owner Mittal Tops U.K. Rich, Usmanov is Second in Sunday Times List

ArcelorMittal Chief Executive Officer Lakshmi Mittal.

Russian Billionaire Alisher Usmanov.

Russian-born billionaire Roman Abramovic.

The yacht 'Eclipse', owned by Roman Abramovich, leaves the dock of shipyard Blohm and Voss in Hamburg.

The Duke of Westminster.

Vedanta Resources Holdings Chairman Anil Agarwal.

Lakshmi Mittal topped the Sunday Times ranking of the 1,000 wealthiest people in the U.K. for a seventh year and Alisher Usmanov leapfrogged Roman Abramovich to No. 2 as the list’s combined wealth rose 18 percent over 12 months.

The total number of billionaires rose to 73. Mittal, the Indian-born chief executive officer of ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steelmaker, topped the list even after the 60- year-old’s fortune declined 22 percent to 17.5 billion pounds ($29 billion), according to the Rich List, published yesterday. Usmanov, 57, the billionaire shareholder of Russian iron-ore producer Metalloinvest, beat 44-year-old Roman Abramovich to second place after adding 7.7 billion pounds to his net worth.

The cumulative wealth of the U.K.’s 1,000 richest families and individuals rose to 395.76 billion pounds during the year. The total fell short of the record 413 billion pounds reached in 2008, according to the rankings compiled each year by Philip Beresford. The number of billionaires on the list rose 20 to 73, two short of the record of 75 set in 2008.

The list has been compiled for the past 22 years and is based on identifiable wealth, including property, art, racehorses and shares in publicly-held companies. It excludes bank-account balances.

The year before, the net worth of those on the list had risen at a record pace, rising 30 percent to 333.5 billion pounds as the country’s richest residents recovered from the global financial crisis.

“Britain’s super-rich are making light of the age of austerity,” Beresford said in an e-mailed statement.

Commodity Producers

Mittal, the owner of 41 percent of Arcelor Mittal (MT), saw the steelmaker’s shares fall 12 percent in 2010 as surging raw- material costs squeezed profit margins. His decline in wealth was the biggest drop in this year’s list.

Prices for iron ore, a steelmaking ingredient, have gained 24 percent in the past three quarters, while European hot-rolled steel coil, a benchmark product used in cars and buildings, rose only 3.7 percent in the period.

Mittal created ArcelorMittal in 2006 when his Mittal Steel Co. bought Arcelor SA in the industry’s biggest acquisition.

Conversely, the rise in iron-ore prices helped boost Usmanov’s wealth to 12.4 billion pounds, the biggest gain on the list. Metalloinvest is Russia’s largest producer of the commodity.

Soccer Teams

Usmanov owns 26.9 percent of Russian Web company Mail.Ru Group, which raised about $1 billion in an initial public offering in London in October. He also owns about 10 percent of Facebook Inc. together with fellow Russian billionaire Yuri Milner. Usmanov is the second-largest shareholder of Arsenal soccer club, with 27 percent of the London team.

Abramovich fell to third place in this year’s list, while adding 2.9 billion pounds to his total wealth, which now stands at 10.3 billion pounds. The owner of Chelsea Football Club, once Russia’s richest man according to Forbes, became wealthy after the collapse of the Soviet Union by building up Russia’s fifth- largest oil producer. His oil business, OAO Sibneft, was bought by OAO Gazprom in 2005 as then-President Vladimir Putin moved to return the country’s oil wealth to state hands.

The billionaire owns homes in the U.K. and Russia, as well as in Cap d’Antibes on the French Riviera, on the Caribbean island of Saint-Barthelemy, and in Aspen, Colorado, according to filings for his candidacy for Russian regional elections. His Millhouse LLC manages his assets, holds stakes in Evraz Group SA (EVR), Russia’s second-largest steelmaker, and Highland old Mining Ltd (HGM) Evraz rose 27 percent in 2010 in London trading as steel prices recovered following a global economic slump.

Chelsea and Arsenal are second and third, respectively, in the Premier League standings this year. Manchester United leads.

Putin told Abramovich in December to “open up his wallet” to help build stadiums for the 2018 soccer World Cup in Russia.

Self-Made Woman

The number of women in the list has risen above 10 percent for the first time in its history and now stands at 108, Beresford said in the statement. That number includes Mary Perkins, the founder of Specsavers Optical Group Ltd., whose increase in wealth to 1.15 billion pounds with her husband, Douglas, makes her Britain’s first self-made female billionaire, Beresford said.

The highest new entrants were Gopichand and Srichand Hinduja, 70 and 75 respectively, who took the ninth spot with a fortune calculated at 6 billion pounds. The brothers said in January they plan to sell shares in some units in India in two to three years as they expand in the country.