Billionaire owner slips to 25th on the rich list

THE owner of the strike-hit Grangemouth refinery, Ineos chemicals billionaire Jim Ratcliffe, has plummeted from 10th to 25th on the Sunday Times Rich List published today.
Higher energy costs and more competition from the Middle East resulted in Ratcliffe falling 15 places on last year's position.

The former chemical engineer has been described as "the chemical industry's answer to Lakshmi Mittal", Britain's richest man, as well as the UK's "most private billionaire".

He has succeeded in maintaining a low profile until recently, with his name meaning little to most motorists.

His estimated fortune last year was £3.3bn. He took over BP's Grangemouth plant in 2006 for $9bn (£4.54bn).

The 54-year-old began his career working for Esso Petroleum and Courtaulds, before joining the venture capital firm Advent International. In 1992, he left Advent and led a buy-out of an earlier offshoot of BP, its speciality chemicals division, which became Inspec. He then acquired Ineos from Inspec in a £90.5m deal in 1998.

A series of bold takeovers followed and he bought chunks of ICI, Dow and Degussa. The quiet family man, based in Southampton, has admitted he was "surprised" at the speed of the group's rise.