Lakshmi Mittal stays at top of UK's rich list, Anil Agarwal at 10th

London, Apr 25(ANI): Indian-born steel baron Lakshmi Mittal has topped The Sunday Times Rich List 2010, as his fortune doubled this year to 22.45 billion pounds, thanks to the recovery in steel markets.

Mittal claimed the spot for the sixth consecutive year with a 108 per cent surge in his business from 10.8 billion pounds in 2009.

A boom in commodity markets also drove up Indian industrialist Anil Agarwal, founder and Executive Chairman of Vedanta Resources Corporation, to 10th in the list with a fortune of 4.1 billion pounds.

Agarwal moved 60 places up the list, as the soaring share price of Vedanta Resources added 3.5 billion pounds to their business, an increase of 583 percent over 2009.

The 2010 Sunday Times Rich List, published today, also revealed that the 1,000 richest people in the country increased their wealth by 77 billion pounds last year, bringing their total wealth to 335.5 billion pounds.

The rise is easily the largest annual increase in the 22 years that the survey has been carried out.

"The rich have come through the recession with flying colours. The stock market is up, the hedge funds are coining it. The rich are doing very nicely," Times Online quoted Philip Beresford, compiler of the list, as saying.

"The rest of the country is going to have to face public spending cuts, but it has little effect on the rich because they don't consume public services," he added.

Roman Abramovich, the oil and industry magnate and owner of Chelsea FC, came second in the list with a fortune worth 7.4 billion pounds, up six per cent on last year.

He is followed by the Duke of Westminster, the richest British-born billionaire, whose fortune increased by 2.5 billion pounds to six billion pounds.

The Sunday Times Rich List 2010 top 20:

1. Lakshmi Mittal - 22.4 billion pounds

2. Roman Abramovich - 7.4 billion pounds

3. Duke of Westminster - 6.7 billion pounds

4. Ernesto and Kirsty Bertarelli - 5.9 billion pounds

5. David and Simon Reuben - 5.5 billion pounds

6. Alisher Usmanov - 4.7 billion pounds

7. Galen and George Weston - 4.5 billion pounds

8. Charlene and Michel de Carvalho - 4.4 billion pounds

9. Sir Philip and Lady Green - 4.1 billion pounds

10. Anil Agarwal - 4.1 billion pounds

11. Hans Rausing - 4.0 billion pounds

12. Joseph Lau - 3.8 billion pounds

13. Kirsten and Jorn Rausing - 3.5 billion pounds

14. Vladimir Kim - 3.1 billion pounds

15. Leonard Blavatnik - 3.0 billion pounds

16. John Fredriksen - 2.7 billion pounds

17. Joe Lewis - 2.7 billion pounds

18. Sir Richard Branson - 2.6 billion pounds

19. Earl Cadogan - 2.3 billion pounds

20. Alan Parker - 2.0 billion pounds (ANI)