Rich list: Sir Richard Branson’s wealth shrinks by £1.8bn in a year

The British entrepreneur slipped down the annual Sunday Times Rich List following his satellite launch company, Virgin Orbit, going bankrupt.

Sir Richard’s wealth has dropped by £1.79 billion since last year, the list revealed.

It marks a bigger decline in his net worth than the tycoon indicated during an interview with the BBC earlier this month.

He told the BBC’s Amol Rajan that the pandemic “cost us a big percentage of our net worth, maybe £1.5 billion.

“There was a time where it really looked like we were going to lose everything”, he said.

The Sunday Times said last year that Sir Richard and his family were worth about £4.2 billion, placing him 44th on the list.

The businessman, who resides on a private island in the Caribbean, featured 77th on the list this year with a net worth of £2.41 billion.

Virgin Group, which includes airline Virgin Atlantic, gym group Virgin Active and bank Virgin Money, suffered a hit when Covid struck in early 2020.

Sir Richard faced criticism when he asked for a commercial loan from the Government at the height of the virus in a bid to keep his airline afloat.

He insisted he did not have billions in “cash in a bank account ready to withdraw” to save the business and tens of thousands of staff.

Virgin Atlantic eventually secured a £1.2 billion bailout involving only private funds, including £200 million from the wider Virgin Group.

The troubles continued for his empire with Virgin Orbit filing for bankruptcy earlier this month and axing 675 jobs – about 85% of its workforce.

It came after a rocket failed to complete the first satellite launch from UK soil in January.