The founder of price comparison site moneysupermarket.com is edging closer to joining the billionaires club according to the Sunday Times Rich List 2015.
Chester’s Simon Nixon, 47, co-founded the Ewloe-based company with Duncan Cameron after dropping out of university.
The Rich List of Britain’s 1,000 wealthiest people puts his worth at £945m, up £135m on the previous year, making him the UK’s 120th richest resident.
Now based in the tax haven of Jersey, Simon recently put his Chester home, overlooking the Dee, on the market for £1.65m.
The dot com multi-millionaire still works part-time on product development and retains a £260m stake in the Flintshire business. His net worth also includes a £130m share sale, £210m of property and other assets.
Despite his enormous wealth, it is dwarfed by that of the Duke of Westminster, still Cheshire’s richest person with £8.56bn assets and ninth richest British citizen.
According to the Sunday Times, recent successes include the Liverpool One shopping, residential and leisure complex.
The duke, 63, has four children. Lady Edwina, 33, his second daughter, is married to TV historian Dan Snow and the couple have apparently discussed excluding their two young children from the family fortune.
His son, Hugh, Earl Grosvenor, 24, inherited a talent for football from his dad who had a trial for Fulham, the Earl at Crewe Alexandra.
Property developer Steve Morgan, 62, founder of Redrow, who lives at Carden Hall, Cheshire, has had a good year with his worth up £90m, putting his overall value at £740m and making him joint 150th richest person in Britain.
Malcolm Walker, 69, who co-founded Deeside-based frozen food group Iceland in 1970, accepts Lidl and Aldi have eaten into profits but is fighting back with six trial Food Warehouse stores that stock luxury items like lobster and champagne alongside the usual lower-priced items.
His value is unchanged on 2014 at £215m but he slips down the Rich List from position 435 last year to joint 450th now.
The 20 richest in the North West
Regional rank 2015 | Regional rank 2014 | Name | 2015 wealth | Wealth increase/ decrease | National rank |
1 | 1 | The Duke of Westminster | £8,560m | Up £60m | 9 |
2 | 2 | John Whittaker and family | £2,370m | Up £70m | 43 |
3 | 3 | Tom Morris and family | £2,250m | Up £200m | 46 |
4 | 4 | Simon, Bobby and Robin Arora | £1,750m | Up £350m | 52= |
5 | 5 | Lord Grantchester and the Moores family | £1,200m | No change | 85= |
6= | 8 | Fred and Peter Done | £1,000m | Up £50m | 108= |
6= | 7 | John Hargreaves and family | £1,000m | No change | 108= |
8 | 6 | The Sheppard family | £840m | Down £200m | 136 |
9 | 14 | Philip Day | £750m | Up £150m | 145= |
10= | 9 | Peter Jones and family | £730m | Up £13m | 154= |
10= | 10 | Sir Paul McCartney and Nancy Shevell | £730m | Up £20m | 154= |
12 | 13 | Michael Oliver and family | £724m | Up £116m | 157 |
13 | 12 | Trevor Hemmings | £675m | Up £50m | 166= |
14 | 19 | Henry Moser and family | £600m | Up £250m | 186= |
15 | 11 | Lord Alliance and family | £532m | Down £118m | 205 |
16 | 16 | The Warburton family | £530m | Up £30m | 206= |
17 | 15 | The Walker family | £520m | No change | 209= |
18 | 18 | Sir Lindsay Owen-Jones | £486m | Up £81m | 227 |
19 | 20 | Michael Oglesby and family | £410m | Up £85m | 261 |
20 | 24 | Sir Michael Bibby and family | £400m | Up £136m | 262= |