Britain's richest man worth £35 billion dies aged 85

The UK's richest man, Gopichand Hinduja, has died aged 85 as his family release a heartfelt statement. Hinduja died on Tuesday in a London hospital after a long illness, a spokesperson said. The Hinduja family was not famous but topped the Sunday Times Rich list this year with a collective net worth of £35.3 billion, thanks to business across banking, oil, real estate and entertainment.

Hinduja Group now employs more than 150,000 people worldwide and the empire expanded thanks to a series of large acquisitions, such as the purchase of the Ashok Leyland group, which included parts of the defunct British automotive business British Leyland. The group also bought Gulf Oil from the US oil company Chevron in the 1980s.

Hinduja, nicknamed "GP", co-chaired the family with his brother who diedin 2023.

The brothers moved from India to London in the 1970s, where they continued expanding the Hinduja Group. Gopichand Hinduja joined the family business in 1950 and transformed the company from an Indo-Middle East trading operation into a transnational conglomerate.

According to the company's website, he was a graduate from Bombay Jai Hind College and held honorary doctorate degrees from the University of Westminster and Richmond College.

In 2021, the Hinduja family became the focus of public attention when an internal dispute was brought before a London court. Srichand Hinduja's daughter, Vinoo, along with her mother, Shanu, accused Srichand's three brothers of excluding them from key decisions and financial support. At the time, Srichand - often referred to as SP - was living with dementia.

In response, Gopichand, Prakash and Ashok pointed to a 2013 family agreement stating that "everything belongs to everyone and nothing belongs to anyone", arguing it guided how their business and assets were managed. The disagreement quickly escalated, with both sides trading allegations, leading to highly publicised family tensions.