Aussies shoot up Britain’s rich list with Michael Hintze joining the billionaire club

Hedge fund founder Michael Hintze has joined the billionaire club in The Sunday Times’ list of the 100 richest people in Britain.

Hintze tops a field of 13 entrepreneurs with connections to Australia in the list released on the weekend. 

From just 30 in 2004, the number of billionaires in Britain has soared to 104.

Indian-born investors Sri and Gopi Hinduja, top the list with £11.9 billion ($A21.5b) in wealth.

Britain has one billionaire for every 600,000 inhabitants. In the United States, the nearest rival, the figure is one for every one million.

Hintze grew up and studied in Sydney and is now estimated to be worth £1.06 billion, making him the 92nd wealthiest person in the United Kingdom.

That’s £155 million more than the £900 million that secured Hintze’s 95th place in the 2013 list.

Hintze founded London-based hedge fund SQS in 1999 and has also amassed one of Australia’s fastest-growing farm portfolios, with acquisitions totalling about 60,000 hectares since 2007.

His private pension fund, MHPF, spent about $150 million on the land and water purchases.

He is well known for his philanthropy in the UK, and made a donation of £5 million to the Natural History Museum in London through the Hintze Family Charitable Foundation last week, the largest single donation the museum has ever received.

The other Aussies who made the cut:

198. Rick Smith and family, £503 million

Smith is a new entry in the list and he made his initial fortune in Australia.

He arrived in Australia in 1959 as a Scottish immigrant and joined PFD Food Services as a salesman and driver.

By 1998, Smith had bought out the business from his partners and it now supplies cafes and restaurants with about 2500 products. 

241. Mark Creasy, £425 million

Australia’s most successful prospector saw a fall in his wealth this year, dropping down the rankings from 173rd on the 2013 list, down to 241 this year.

Creasy, 68, is British born but now lives in Perth’s Peppermint Grove. He made his fortune prospecting for gold in Australia, selling a claim in the outback for £50 million in 1994.

Sirius Resources, a mining company that recently discovered nickel deposits on a site in Western Australia, is 20.3% owned by Creasy.

273. Sir Martin Arbib, £350 million

Commercial property investor Arbib’s wealth increased to see him rise to 273rd place on this year’s list, up from £320 million last year.

The 171 Macquarie Street heritage offices are his family’s only known Australian investment, having cost $5.35 million in 2005.

342. Graham Tuckwell, £273 million

Tuckwell lives in the UK but grew up in Canberra where he studied at ANU. 

He made his fortune from his exchange traded fund company, ETF Securities.

Tuckwell hit the headlines last year when he donated $50 million to the Australian National University. In the largest donation ever made to an Australian university, Tuckwell will fund scholarships worth up to $100,000 over five years in an ANU scheme to run for 20 years.

364. Hilton Nathanson, £253 million

In 364th place, up from 522nd place is young gun fund manager, Hilton Nathanson, the co-founder of Marble Bar Asset Management.

Nathanson is from Melbourne and was hired by Hintze when he first arrived in London.

He eventually went out on his own to set up Marble Bar and then sold his stake in 2007 to a Swiss bank for about $245 million.