What is Sir Richard Branson’s net worth?
▼ £2.4 billion
£2.41 billion in 2023
It has been a tricky year for Britain’s self-styled consumer champion turned rocket man — the second in a row. But he isn’t letting it bring him down.
The Virgin Group founder had about $1 billion tied up in global stock markets in December 2022. However, his stakes in his space-flight company Virgin Galactic, the DNA-testing service 23andMe and the online retailer Grove Collaborative have each fallen more than 90 per cent since their peak in 2021. His satellite-services firm Virgin Orbit fell into bankruptcy last year. Overall the value of his holdings has reduced by 40 per cent.
Offsetting these losses is Virgin Group’s licensing arm, which is receiving more income than it was before the pandemic. Its estimated value of $1.3 billion makes it Branson’s largest individual asset.
Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Money have also had a promising year, with the former launching new routes to India, the US, Turks and Caicos, and the Maldives last year, and reviving its service to Dubai. Its chief executive, Shai Weiss, forecasts operating profits of more than £200 million for 2024 — double Virgin’s record of £100 million in 1999 — as passenger numbers finally match pre-Covid levels of six million and the fleet returns to 45 aircraft. Last year passenger volumes were still more than 10 per cent below pre-pandemic levels, with numbers of corporate travellers 20 per cent down.
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The airline reported record revenues of £3.1 billion in 2023, compared with £2.9 billion in 2019, the last full year before the pandemic laid waste to international travel, and made an operating profit of £80 million (£72 million in 2019). Pre-tax losses came in at £139 million, better than the £206 million it racked up in 2022, partly because of increased interest rates in servicing its £3.1 billion of debt. “A loss is never satisfactory. However, our performance and results illustrate that we have made really good progress in 2023. The plan is working, and Virgin Atlantic is on course to return to profitability in 2024,” Weiss says.
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Looking to the future, the airline recently flew from London Heathrow to New York JFK powered entirely by sustainable aviation fuel. Branson, 73, is hosting a party in Las Vegas next month to mark the 40th anniversary of the airline, which he set up with a single leased Boeing 747 operating between Gatwick and New York. His cruise line, Virgin Voyages, meanwhile, is also recovering from the pandemic-shaped dent in its numbers.
Back on land, Nationwide Building Society is buying Virgin Money for a potential £2.9 billion. The all-cash acquisition is expected to conclude in the fourth quarter, with Branson set to receive a payout worth about £670 million. This will comprise £420 million for his stake in Virgin Money plus a £250 million exit fee that allows Nationwide to dispense with the Virgin brand after six years. He will also receive annual royalties of £15 million.
Branson’s property portfolio is worth £300 million and includes Necker, the Caribbean island on which he lives with his wife, Joan, and where he has based one of his “ultra-luxury” Virgin Limited Edition retreats. He is expanding the collection, last year opening the five-star Son Bunyola Hotel & Villas in Mallorca, where real estate prices have lately surged. Meanwhile his Virgin Hotels chain is developing new sites in Denver and Miami, after recently opening properties in New York and Edinburgh.
View the full list to see where money was made and lost in the last year
