Easdale Brothers join Scotland's billionaire club in 2022 Sunday Times Rich List
The McGills buses bosses are estimated to be worth £1.3bn
Many of Scotland’s billionaires have seen the value of their fortunes fall over the last year according to the latest edition of the Sunday Times Rich List .
ASOS owner Anders Holch Povlsen remains the most wealthy of Scotland’s 10 billionaires, worth around £6.5 billion and seeing an increase of £500 million.
But Glenn Gordon and family who own spirits company William Grant and Sons are around £200 million worse off according to the newspaper.
Billionaire bus brothers
New members of the billionaire club are the Easedale Brothers, who are worth around £1.3 billion.
The pair are best known for the McGills bus company in the west of Scotland and for being former directors of Rangers, but also have significant property interests including plans to redevelop the site of the former IBM factory in Greenock and turn the disused Watt Brothers department store in Glasgow into a hotel.
Former shipyard owner slips down the list
Jim McColl drops out of Scotland’s top 10 having lost his billionaire status recently.
The Clyde Blowers boss is currently at loggerheads with the Scottish Government about decisions taken during the early stages of a contract to build two new ferries for Calmac while he owned the Ferguson Marine shipyard in Port Glasgow.
The yard fell into administration when the project was hit by delays and overspends and has since been nationalised.
The two ferries are already five years late and will cost more than twice their budget.
Harry Potter author JK Rowling is estimated to be worth around £870 million.
Inflation and Ukraine hits the rich
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."
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