Gopichand Hinduja, Britain’s richest man, dies

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The industrialist Gopichand Hinduja, whose family business made him the richest man in the UK, has died aged 85.

Hinduja died on Tuesday after a long illness, according to people familiar with the situation.

The publicity-shy Hinduja family has a net worth of £35.3bn, according to the Sunday Times Rich List, thanks to its ownership of the Hinduja Group, which invests in everything from banking and real estate to oil, entertainment and commercial vehicles.

Hinduja and his older brother Srichand moved to London in the 1980s, from where they ran the Hinduja Group. Srichand died in 2023.

Known as “GP”, Hinduja, who joined his family business in 1959, helped transform his family’s modest trading operation, founded in India and Iran in the early 20th century, into a major conglomerate.

The family’s reputation was tested last year when four of its members, including Hinduja’s brother Prakash, chair of the Hinduja Group in Europe, were convicted by a Geneva court of exploiting their domestic staff. They are appealing against the conviction. A judgment is not considered final in Switzerland until all avenues of appeal have been exhausted.

The four Hinduja brothers had also been involved in litigation against one another in recent years concerning ownership of assets and power of attorney. A judge in London raised concerns that the care of Srichand, who had been suffering from dementia, had been “marginalised” because of a family feud. The Hinduja family settled the litigation.

The Hinduja Group declined immediately to comment.

In 2023, the Hinduja Group opened a £1.4bn luxury hotel in the former War Office on Whitehall at the heart of political London. Guests at the Old War Office (OWO) can sleep in Sir Winston Churchill’s former office for £18,000-£25,000 a night.

“The OWO will be my greatest legacy to London,” Hinduja previously told the Financial Times.

Hinduja was involved in controversy in 2001 when it was revealed he had written to Lord Peter Mandelson, then a government minister, about obtaining a UK passport for Prakash.

The Hinduja Foundation, the brothers’ charitable arm, had donated £1mn to the Millennium Dome in London, which had been part of Mandelson’s responsibility. Mandelson resigned as a minister but was later cleared by an inquiry.