Bristol businessmen make region's rich list
Although their estimated wealth fell due to the ailing stock market, both men rose up the Sunday Times 2009 Rich List, which will be published on Sunday.
According to the list, Mr Hargeaves, 62, and Mr Lansdown, 56, who is Bristol City FC chairman, are now the fourth and seventh richest men respectively living and working in the South West.
And when it comes to the national rich list they are ranked at 176th and 207th, compared to last year when the pair were ranked 237th and 260th place on the list.
The duo started their business in the bedroom of a Clifton house in 1981 and are still based in Clifton.
The firm floated in 2007 and at the time its value neared £1 billion.
Mr Hargreaves, has a £251m stake in the business and sold £75m of shares in the float.
Mr Lansdown has a stake worth £218m. He has further assets from previous share sales and £30m in dividends.
Last week, it emerged he sold 23 million of his own shares in the firm - worth £47 million - some of which he pledged to help build the new 30,000 seat Bristol City stadium.
Hargreaves Lansdown, which employs more than 900 people, is the largest independent stockbroker outside London in the UK.
It is in the process of planning a £30m move to offices in the Harbourside.
But millionaire inventor Sir James Dyson lost his top spot on the Sunday Times South West list.
The 61-year-old, who owns the Dodington Park estate close to Chipping Sodbury, is worth an estimated £560 million - a £200 million fall on his £760 million fortune last year.
His Malmesbury-based Dyson group which makes vacuum cleaners and hand driers saw profits rise 7.3 per cent to £88.8 million on sales in 2007 of £611 million.
A townhouse in Chelsea, and a house in France take his fortune to £560 million.
The family of the late Jack Baylis, on whose land The Mall at Cribbs Causeway was built, saw its fortune drop from £200 million to £125 million.
Mr Baylis, who died in 2005, bought 140-acre Charlton Farm at the end of Filton runway in the early 1960s.
Part of the site was used for the giant Carrefour hypermarket in 1973, now Asda WalMart, and in 1985 Mr Baylis teamed up with the Prudential to submit plans for a £200 million shopping complex with the adjoining Venue entertainment complex.
The family is now ranked at 426 in the Rich List - down from 397th in 2008.
The list is based on identifiable wealth - land, property, other assets such as art and racehorses, or significant shares in publicly quoted companies.
This year, it takes a £55m fortune to make it into the top 1,000 in the Rich List, £25m lower than last year's £80m qualifying, the first time the threshold has fallen since 2003.
Music stars have been badly hit by the recession, with the likes of Sir Elton John and Robbie Williams losing around a quarter of their personal wealth over the past year.
According to tomorrow's rich list, Sir Tom Jones, Phil Collins and Engelbert Humperdinck all lost substantial sums.
Even evergreen crooner Sir Cliff Richard was caught in the economic storm – his personal fortune was down a fifth from £50 million to £40 million.
The plummeting value of property investments and share portfolios is the main reason for the stars faring so poorly, though Sir Elton's generous charitable donations contributed to his fall.
The list of the top 50 music millionaires, published along with the full list tomorrow (SUN), shows Sir Elton's fortune to have fallen 26% from £238 million in 2008 to £175 million.
Sir Paul McCartney saw £60 million wiped off his fortune thanks to falling property and share values.
Las Vegas's other favourite knight of the realm, Sir Tom Jones, saw his wealth fall 24% from £170 million last year to £130 million.
Former Take That star Robbie Williams lost £25 million over the year, to be left with a trifling £80 million.
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