David Reuben (born 1941) and Simon Reuben (born 1944) are British businessmen. In 2024, they were named the third-richest family in the UK by the '' Sunday Times Rich List'', with a net worth of £24.9 billion.

Early life and background

The brothers were born in

Bombay Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial centre, financial capital and the list of cities i ...

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance in South Asia. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one form or another ...

, the sons of David Sassoon Reuben and Nancy Reuben, a Baghdadi Jewish family. Their father went to Bombay from Iraq to secure work in the textile industry. Following their parents' separation, the brothers moved to London in the 1950s with their mother, and due to the change in financial circumstances, the brothers attended state schools and lived in

Islington Islington ( ) is an inner-city area of north London, England, within the wider London Borough of Islington. It is a mainly residential district of Inner London, extending from Islington's #Islington High Street, High Street to Highbury Fields ...

, North London, with Simon never completing his formal education.

Careers

David joined a

scrap metal Scrap consists of recyclable materials, usually metals, left over from product manufacturing and consumption, such as parts of vehicles, building supplies, and surplus materials. Unlike waste, scrap can have monetary value, especially recover ...

s business while Simon started out in carpets. Simon went on to buy out England's oldest carpet company from the receivers and made enough money from it to start investing in property, with early investments on Walton Street and the King's Road in Chelsea. The brothers increased their wealth during the 1970s and 1980s in metals and property trading.

Metals business

In the early 1990s, the brothers invested in the Russian metals market. When Russian aluminum

smelter Smelting is a process of applying heat and a chemical reducing agent to an ore to extract a desired base metal product. It is a form of extractive metallurgy that is used to obtain many metals such as iron, copper, silver, tin, lead and zin ...

s were incapacitated by debt, Reuben's company Trans-World entered into tolling arrangements with factories in which they paid for and delivered raw materials in return for finished aluminum, which it then sold for profit. The company's investment in Russia was 1.5 billion (870 million), with global sales in 1995 above 8 billion. TransWorld was accused of involvement in illegal activities, including several murders. The brothers were involved with several members of the country's new

oligarchy Oligarchy (; ) is a form of government in which power rests with a small number of people. Members of this group, called oligarchs, generally hold usually hard, but sometimes soft power through nobility, fame, wealth, or education; or t ...

, including

Roman Abramovich Roman Arkadyevich Abramovich (born 24 October 1966) is a business oligarch and politician. He is the former owner of Chelsea F.C., Chelsea, a Premier League football club in London, England, and is the primary owner of the private investment com ...

. They settled a multimillion-pound legal dispute with

Oleg Deripaska Oleg Vladimirovich Deripaska (; born 2 January 1968) is a Russian oligarch and billionaire. Deripaska began his career as a metals trader after the breakup of the Soviet Union. He used accumulated funds from trading to acquire stakes in the Sa ...

with a settlement being awarded to Reuben Brothers. In 1997, Russia's Interior Minister Anatoly Kulikov linked both the Cherney brothers and Reuben brothers to the Izmaylovskaya mafia led by Anton Malevsky in Israel. In March 1998,

Boris Yeltsin Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin (1 February 1931 – 23 April 2007) was a Soviet and Russian politician and statesman who served as President of Russia from 1991 to 1999. He was a member of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) from 1961 to ...

replaced Kulikov as minister. In 2008, the Reuben brothers returned to the commodity business, expanding their mining interests with a portfolio of mines in Morocco, Indonesia, and South Africa.

Present activities

By 2000, the brothers sold all their Russian assets as they focused their business activities mainly in the UK property market. They have been involved in financing a number of acquisitions and have investments in technology companies. , their business activities mainly involved real estate, both in the UK and abroad,

venture capital Venture capital (VC) is a form of private equity financing provided by firms or funds to start-up company, startup, early-stage, and emerging companies, that have been deemed to have high growth potential or that have demonstrated high growth in ...

, and

private equity Private equity (PE) is stock in a private company that does not offer stock to the general public; instead it is offered to specialized investment funds and limited partnerships that take an active role in the management and structuring of the co ...

. Simon Reuben is an investor in OneDome, a fintech business based in the UK.

Real estate

UK properties owned by the Reuben Brothers include:

Millbank Tower Millbank Tower is a skyscraper in the City of Westminster at Millbank, by the River Thames in London, England. The tower was constructed in 1963, and has been home to many high-profile political organisations, including the Labour Party (UK), L ...

; the

John Lewis Partnership John Lewis Partnership plc (JLP) is a British company that operates John Lewis & Partners department stores, Waitrose supermarkets, financial services and a build to rent operation. The public limited company is owned by a trust on behalf o ...

headquarters in Victoria; the

American Express American Express Company or Amex is an American bank holding company and multinational financial services corporation that specializes in payment card industry, payment cards. It is headquartered at 200 Vesey Street, also known as American Expr ...

offices also in Victoria; Carlton House SW1; Academy House on Sackville Street; Connaught House on

Berkeley Square Berkeley Square is a garden square in the West End of London. It is one of the best known of the many squares in London, located in Mayfair in the City of Westminster. It was laid out in the mid 18th century by the architect William Kent, ...

; Market Towers; the London Primark store on Oxford Street;

Sloane Street Sloane Street is a major London street in the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea which runs north to south, from Knightsbridge to Sloane Square, crossing Pont Street about halfway along. History Sloane Street takes its name from Sir Han ...

shops; and Cambridge House, the former premises of the Naval and Military Club, which comprises six freehold buildings which have a planning consent for a six-star hotel and private members' club. Other investments and developments include Merchant Square, a development scheme of offices and flats, in the

Paddington Paddington is an area in the City of Westminster, in central London, England. A medieval parish then a metropolitan borough of the County of London, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965. Paddington station, designed b ...

area of London; Park Plaza Hotels & Resorts, a 50/50 joint venture in a new apart-hotel under the 'art'otel' brand in

Hoxton Hoxton is an area in the London Borough of Hackney, England. It was Historic counties of England, historically in the county of Middlesex until 1889. Hoxton lies north-east of the City of London, is considered to be a part of London's East End ...

, City of London; Hampton House, demolition and redevelopment of the 1960s office block opposite Tate Britain that was designed by Foster & Partners and features a mix of apartments and an apart-hotel on the

River Thames The River Thames ( ), known alternatively in parts as the The Isis, River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the Longest rivers of the United Kingdom, s ...

next to the Park Plaza London Riverbank hotel; airports at London Oxford and London Heliport. In 2006, the Reuben Brothers formed a partnership that injected private equity into the FTSE-listed McCarthy & Stone, a retirement home construction company, exiting from that investment in 2013.

Aldergate Investments

The Reuben Brothers invested in luxury leisure group Belmond Ltd in 2007, and sold their share in 2019 for £233 million. Other holdings include Travelodge Hotels; D2 Jeans and

Blue Inc Blue Inc is a fashion retailer with 41 stores based and operating across the United Kingdom. It was notable for being one of the largest menswear retailers in the country until 2016. It had stores nationwide, mainly in larger towns and cities. ...

clothing retailers, with retailer Sir Stuart Rose; Luup and Metro Bank; The Wellington Pub Company, the largest free-of-tie pub estate in the UK with approximately 850 tenanted pubs; Global Switch, the carrier data centre provider in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region; and a joint venture with British Marine, that in 2014 had eight vessels with plans to double the fleet size.

Sport

=Takeover of Newcastle United

= On 14 April 2020, it emerged that a deal to transfer ownership of Newcastle United Football Club had been agreed between incumbent owner Mike Ashley and a prospective buying consortium consisting of Reuben Brothers, Amanda Staveley's PCP Capital Partners, and the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia. The

Premier League The Premier League is a professional association football league in England and the highest level of the English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Football Lea ...

initially refused to ratify the deal, and Mike Ashley engaged in legal proceedings against the Premier League to complete the takeover. On 7 October 2021, the Premier League approved the buy-out, stating that it has "received legally binding guarantees that the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia will not control the Newcastle United club". The buy-out deal involved the Saudi Public Investment Fund taking up 80% of Newcastle United shares, while the Reuben Brothers and PCP Capital Partners each took 10% of the remaining shares.

=Arena Racing Company

= Arena Racing Company, also called ARC Racing and Leisure Group is a UK private company, created in 2012 by the merger of

Arena Leisure Arena Leisure plc was a Public Company based in London, England, which existed as an independent entity until 2012 when it was merged with Northern Racing to form the Arena Racing Company. The company operated seven of the UK's horse racing co ...

and Northern Racing. It owns and operates 16 racecourses in Great Britain, accounting for 39% of British racing fixtures. It operates hotels at

Doncaster Racecourse Doncaster Racecourse (also known as the Town Moor course) is a racecourse in Doncaster, South Yorkshire, England. It hosts two of Great Britain's List of British flat horse races#Group 1, 36 annual Group One, Group 1 flat races, the St Leger ...

Wolverhampton Racecourse Wolverhampton Racecourse is a thoroughbred horse racing venue located in Wolverhampton, West Midlands, England. The track was the first to be floodlit in Britain and often holds meetings in the evening. The track surface has been Tapeta sinc ...

and

Lingfield Park Racecourse Lingfield Park Racecourse (commonly referred to as Lingfield) is a horse racing course at Lingfield, Surrey, Lingfield in Surrey, United Kingdom. It is owned by the ARC Racing and Leisure Group, formerly Arena Leisure Plc. Lingfield is best k ...

, and

golf course A golf course is the grounds on which the sport of golf is played. It consists of a series of holes, each consisting of a teeing ground, tee box, a #Fairway and rough, fairway, the #Fairway and rough, rough and other hazard (golf), hazards, and ...

s at Lingfield, Southwell and

Newcastle Newcastle usually refers to: *Newcastle upon Tyne, a city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle-under-Lyme, a town in Staffordshire, England, United Kingdom *Newcastle, New South Wales, a metropolitan area ...

Entertainment

On 19 August 2024, Reuben Brothers acquired a strategic stake in EDGLRD, an entertainment company founded by filmmaker

Harmony Korine Harmony Korine (born January 4, 1973) is an American filmmaker, actor, photographer, artist, and author. His methods feature an erratic, loose and transgressive aesthetic, exploring taboo themes and incorporating experimental techniques,Alicia Kn ...

Controversial statement by London mayor

In 2006

Ken Livingstone Kenneth Robert Livingstone (born 17 June 1945) is an English former politician who served as the Leader of the Greater London Council (GLC) from 1981 until the council was Local Government Act 1985, abolished in 1986, and as Mayor of Londo ...

, the

Mayor of London The mayor of London is the chief executive of the Greater London Authority. The role was created in 2000 after the Greater London devolution referendum in 1998, and was the first directly elected mayor in the United Kingdom. The current ...

at the time, used a press conference to accuse Simon and David Reuben of jeopardising the £4 billion Olympic City development, in which the Reuben brothers held a 50% stake. Livingstone controversially told the media conference, referring to the Reuben brothers, that "If they're not happy here, they can go back to

Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) and also known as Persia, is a country in West Asia. It borders Iraq to the west, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and Armenia to the northwest, the Caspian Sea to the north, Turkmenistan to the nort ...

and try their luck with the

ayatollah Ayatollah (, ; ; ) is an Title of honor, honorific title for high-ranking Twelver Shia clergy. It came into widespread usage in the 20th century. Originally used as a title bestowed by popular/clerical acclaim for a small number of the most di ...

s, if they don't like the planning regime or my approach."

Conservative Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy and ideology that seeks to promote and preserve traditional institutions, customs, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civiliza ...

members of the

London Assembly The London Assembly is a 25-member elected body, part of the Greater London Authority, that scrutinises the activities of the Mayor of London and has the power, with a two-thirds supermajority, to amend the Mayor's annual budget and to reject t ...

stated the brothers were not Iranian, but had been born in British India of Iraqi-Jewish parents. After a public complaint and a subsequent official investigation into Livingstone's comments, the investigating officer dismissed the complaint and concluded that Livingstone had reason to be strongly critical of the Reuben brothers' conduct, and that his criticism, while "robust," was "reasonable" in the circumstances.

The Reuben Foundation

The family's philanthropic vehicle, the Reuben Foundation, is focused on the advancement of healthcare and education. The family founded the Nancy Reuben Primary School, an independent Jewish day school in

Hendon Hendon is an urban area in the London Borough of Barnet, northwest London northwest of Charing Cross. Hendon was an ancient Manorialism, manor and parish in the county of Middlesex and a former borough, the Municipal Borough of Hendon; it has ...

in honour of their mother. The foundation has donated £80million to support the creation of Reuben College, Oxford, originally named Parks College. It is a post-graduate college focused on climate change, artificial intelligence and cellular life.

Personal life

According to the '' Sunday Times Rich List'' 2023, David and Simon Reuben and their combined family had an estimated net worth of £24.4 billion. This made them Britain's fourth wealthiest family. ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British Newspaper#Daily, daily Newspaper#National, national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its modern name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its si ...

'' has reported that the brothers' businesses make extensive use of offshore

tax haven A tax haven is a term, often used pejoratively, to describe a place with very low tax rates for Domicile (law), non-domiciled investors, even if the official rates may be higher. In some older definitions, a tax haven also offers Bank secrecy, ...

s. A spokesperson said that their businesses "fully comply with UK tax laws". The brothers are donors to the Conservative Party.

Wealth rankings

References

External links

Reuben Brothers Ltd
filing at the

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is an independent agency of the United States federal government, created in the aftermath of the Wall Street crash of 1929. Its primary purpose is to enforce laws against market m ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Reuben, David And Simon * Living people Year of birth missing (living people) British billionaires British expatriates in Monaco British businesspeople in real estate British people of Iraqi-Jewish descent Businesspeople from the London Borough of Islington Businesspeople in metals Jewish British philanthropists Businesspeople from Mumbai Private equity and venture capital investors Newcastle United F.C. directors and chairmen Indian emigrants to the United Kingdom Baghdadi Jews British people of Indian-Jewish descent British businesspeople of Indian descent People associated with Reuben College, Oxford