Gopi Hinduja and his family retained their position as Britain’s wealthiest, according to The Sunday Times Rich List, despite a drop in their overall fortune. The Hinduja family’s net worth now stands at £35.3 billion, down from £37.2 billion the previous year.Gopichand Hinduja, who belongs to the second generation of the family, took over as chairman following the death of his elder brother Srichand in May 2023.Who is Gopichand Hinduja?Gopichand P Hinduja, widely known as ‘GP’ in business circles, serves as the chairman of both the Hinduja Group and Hinduja Automotive Ltd in the UK.GP began his journey in the family business in Mumbai in 1959, playing a crucial role in transforming the Group from a traditional Indo-Middle East trading enterprise into a global, multi-billion-dollar conglomerate.Under his leadership, the Group acquired Gulf Oil in 1984 and three years later took over Indian automotive company Ashok Leyland, becoming the first major NRI-led investment in India.A graduate of Jai Hind College, Mumbai (1959), he was honoured with an honorary Doctorate of Law from the University of Westminster and an Honorary Doctorate of Economics from Richmond College, London, as per the group’s website.The Mumbai-based Hinduja Group, a vast multinational conglomerate with interests spanning banking and finance, energy, media, trucks, lubricants, and cable television. The group, which employs around 200,000 people globally, was founded by Parmanand Deepchand Hinduja in 1919 when he moved from Sindh (then in India, now Pakistan) to Iran.In 1979, the business empire later shifted its base from Iran to London. The family’s portfolio includes prized real estate, most notably the historic Old War Office building in Whitehall, now home to the Raffles London hotel, which opened in September 2023 to great fanfare. They also own Carlton House Terrace, a prestigious address near Buckingham Palace, Forbes reported.While Gopichand is based in London, his younger brother Prakash lives in Monaco, and the youngest sibling Ashok oversees operations in India from Mumbai.
