Founder and chief executive of petrochemicals company Ineos and a high-profile Brexiter, Sir Jim Ratcliffe is currently preparing to move to the tax-free principality on the Côte d’Azur in a bid to avoid UK taxes on his vast wealth. Unavailable for comments, only his company said that Ineos was “committed” to its business base in the UK and planned to keep its headquarters in London “for the foreseeable future”.
Ranked the UK's richest person in May, his wealth is estimated to be approximately by £15.3bn to £21bn after he provided access to the privately held accounts of Ineos, which he founded in 1998. Initially pegged at 18th place, Ratcliffe personally contacted the editor the Sunday Times rich list and complained that his wealth had been drastically underestimated. The paper later increased its valuation of his mansion near Beaulieu, in the New Forest, and his two super yachts- Hampshire and Hampshire II. The 65 year old owns 60 per cent of Ineos, which made profits of over £2.2bn last year. It employs 18,500 people.
His senior-most aides in the company, Andy Currie and John Reece, who each own 20 per cent of the company worth £7bn, are reportedly considering following him to Monaco. This is not Ratcliffe's first move. He had quit Britain in 2010, when he moved Ineos to Switzerland in protest against the then Labour government's tax regime. The relocation saved him an estimated £405mn in tax. He later moved the company back to the UK in 2016, after the Conservatives returned to power and cut corporation tax from 28 per cent to 20 per cent.
So many of the world’s wealthiest people have moved to Monaco, including Lady Green, the wife of Topshop owner, Sir Philip Green, that the principality is reclaiming land from the sea in order to build more luxury apartments to house them. Nearly 35 in every 100 of Monaco’s residents are millionaires. About 2,700 more millionaires are expected to call the principality home by 2026, according to research by the estate agent Knight Frank, taking the total to 16,100 out of a total population of under 38,000.
