GREENOCK billionaire businessmen Sandy and James Easdale have moved higher up the Sunday Times rich list.
The 2023 UK wealth league table shows that the brothers rose three places on last year’s position.
They have been placed at 126th with an estimated worth of £1.425 billion, a £62 million year-on-year increase.
The Easdales made it on to the list for the first time last year.
Their wealth is based upon major transport and property businesses nationally as well as a variety of other enterprises, including many in the Inverclyde area.
Their commercial empire includes McGill’s Buses, Blairs Windows, ARC Fleet Services, Clyde Metals and Inverclyde Taxis.
Their property investment operations are behind massive projects including at the former IBM site in Greenock. At the end of 2022, they donated £50,000 to the Glasgow Children’s Hospital Charity.
According to a special edition of the Sunday Times Magazine, there are now 171 billionaires in the UK, a drop of six from 2022.
Their combined wealth is just shy of £684 billion, up nearly £31 billion from the previous year (a rise of 4.5 percent).
Overall, the richest 350 in the UK this year are worth £796.459 billion. The minimum wealth needed to be counted in the top 350 is £350 million.
Robert Watts, the compiler of the Sunday Times Rich List, said: “This year’s Sunday Times Rich List shows that a golden period for the super-rich is over.
“For the first time in 14 years, we’ve seen the number of UK billionaires fall.”
