David Reuben (born 1941) and Simon Reuben (born 1944) are Indian-born British businessmen. In May 2020, they were named as the second richest family in the UK by the ''

Sunday Times Rich List The ''Sunday Times Rich List'' is a list of the 1,000 wealthiest people or families resident in the United Kingdom ranked by net wealth. The list is updated annually in April and published as a magazine supplement by British national Sunday n ...

'' with a net worth of £16 billion.

Early life and background

The brothers were born in

Bombay Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the '' de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the sec ...

British India The provinces of India, earlier presidencies of British India and still earlier, presidency towns, were the administrative divisions of British governance on the Indian subcontinent. Collectively, they have been called British India. In one ...

, the sons of David Sassoon Reuben and Nancy Reuben, a

Baghdadi Jewish The former communities of Jewish migrants and their descendants from Baghdad and elsewhere in the Middle East are traditionally called Baghdadi Jews or Iraqi Jews. They settled primarily in the ports and along the trade routes around the Indian ...

family. The brothers arrived in London in the 1950s with their mother, Nancy, and lived in

Islington Islington () is a district in the north of Greater London, England, and part of the London Borough of Islington. It is a mainly residential district of Inner London, extending from Islington's High Street to Highbury Fields, encompassing the ...

; having run various businesses across the

Indian Subcontinent The Indian subcontinent is a physiographical region in Southern Asia. It is situated on the Indian Plate, projecting southwards into the Indian Ocean from the Himalayas. Geopolitically, it includes the countries of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India ...

from their bases in Bombay and Baghdad. The brothers attended state schools, 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 has monetary value, especially recovered m ...

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 Walton Street may refer to: * Walton Street, Oxford * Walton Street, London Walton Street is a street within central London's Chelsea district, bordering Knightsbridge. It runs south-west to north-east from Draycott Avenue to Walton Place, paral ...

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 Aluminium (aluminum in American and Canadian English) is a chemical element with the symbol Al and atomic number 13. Aluminium has a density lower than those of other common metals, at approximately one third that of steel. It h ...

smelter Smelting is a process of applying heat to ore, to extract a base metal. It is a form of extractive metallurgy. It is used to extract many metals from their ores, including silver, iron, copper, and other base metals. Smelting uses heat and a c ...

s were incapacitated by debt, Reuben 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. The brothers were involved with several members of the country's new

oligarchy Oligarchy (; ) is a conceptual form of power structure in which power rests with a small number of people. These people may or may not be distinguished by one or several characteristics, such as nobility, fame, wealth, education, or corporate, ...

, including

Roman Abramovich Roman Arkadyevich Abramovich (, ; he, רומן ארקדיביץ' אברמוביץ'; born 24 October 1966) is a Russian oligarch and politician. He is the former owner of Chelsea, a Premier League football club in London, England, and is the ...

. They settled a multimillion-pound legal dispute with

Oleg Deripaska Oleg Vladimirovich Deripaska (russian: Олег Владимирович Дерипаска; born 2 January 1968) is a Russian billionaire and an industrialist. Deripaska enriched himself on previously state-owned assets that were privatized in ...

with a settlement being awarded to Reuben Brothers. In 1997, Russia's Interior Minister

Anatoly Kulikov Anatoly Sergeyevich Kulikov (russian: Анатолий Серге́евич Кулико́в, born September 4, 1946 in Aigursky, Stavropol Krai, Russian SFSR) is a Russian General of the Army, former Interior Minister of Russia (1995–1998). ...

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 ( rus, Борис Николаевич Ельцин, p=bɐˈrʲis nʲɪkɐˈla(j)ɪvʲɪtɕ ˈjelʲtsɨn, a=Ru-Boris Nikolayevich Yeltsin.ogg; 1 February 1931 – 23 April 2007) was a Soviet and Russian politician wh ...

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 Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria ...

Indonesia Indonesia, officially the Republic of Indonesia, is a country in Southeast Asia and Oceania between the Indian and Pacific oceans. It consists of over 17,000 islands, including Sumatra, Java, Sulawesi, and parts of Borneo and New Guine ...

, and

South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the southernmost country in Africa. It is bounded to the south by of coastline that stretch along the South Atlantic and Indian Oceans; to the north by the neighbouring count ...

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 (often abbreviated as VC) is a form of private equity financing that is provided by venture capital firms or funds to start-up company, startups, early-stage, and emerging companies that have been deemed to have high growth poten ...

, and

private equity In the field of finance, the term private equity (PE) refers to investment funds, usually limited partnerships (LP), which buy and restructure financially weak companies that produce goods and provide services. A private-equity fund is both a typ ...

Real estate

UK properties owned by the Reuben Brothers include:

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

; the

John Lewis Partnership The John Lewis Partnership plc (JLP) is a British company which operates John Lewis & Partners department stores, Waitrose & Partners supermarkets, its banking and financial services, and other retail-related activities. The privately-held p ...

headquarters in Victoria; the

American Express American Express Company (Amex) is an American multinational corporation specialized in payment card services headquartered at 200 Vesey Street in the Battery Park City neighborhood of Lower Manhattan in New York City. The company was found ...

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 Ke ...

; 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 ...

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 within the City of Westminster, in Central London. First a medieval parish then a metropolitan borough, it was integrated with Westminster and Greater London in 1965. Three important landmarks of the district are Padd ...

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. As a part of Shoreditch, it is often considered to be part of the East End – the historic core of wider East London. It was historically in the county of Middlesex until 1889. It l ...

City of London The City of London is a city, ceremonial county and local government district that contains the historic centre and constitutes, alongside Canary Wharf, the primary central business district (CBD) of London. It constituted most of London f ...

; Hampton House, demolition and redevelopment of the 1960s office block opposite

Tate Britain Tate Britain, known from 1897 to 1932 as the National Gallery of British Art and from 1932 to 2000 as the Tate Gallery, is an art museum on Millbank in the City of Westminster in London, England. It is part of the Tate network of galleries in E ...

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 River Isis, is a river that flows through southern England including London. At , it is the longest river entirely in England and the second-longest in the United Kingdom, after the ...

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 A retirement home – sometimes called an old people's home or old age home, although ''old people's home'' can also refer to a nursing home – is a multi-residence housing facility intended for the elderly. Typically, each person or couple in ...

construction company, exiting from that investment in 2013.

Aldergate Investments

The Reuben Brothers are investors in luxury leisure group Belmond Ltd. Other holdings include Travelodge Hotels; D2 Jeans and Blue Inc 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 Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located enti ...

and the

Asia-Pacific Asia-Pacific (APAC) is the part of the world near the western Pacific Ocean. The Asia-Pacific region varies in area depending on context, but it generally includes East Asia, Russian Far East, South Asia, Southeast Asia, Australia and Pacific Isla ...

region; and a joint venture with British Marine, that in 2014 had eight vessels with plans to double the fleet size.

Sports

=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 (legal name: The Football Association Premier League Limited) is the highest level of the men's English football league system. Contested by 20 clubs, it operates on a system of promotion and relegation with the English Foo ...

initially refused to ratify the deal, and Mike Ashley engaged in legal proceedings against the Premier League in order 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 A privately held company (or simply a private company) is a company whose shares and related rights or obligations are not offered for public subscription or publicly negotiated in the respective listed markets, but rather the company's stock is ...

, 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 c ...

and

Northern Racing Northern Racing was a private company that owned ten horse racing courses and one golf course in the United Kingdom. It was formed in 1998 by Sir Stanley Clarke CBE, and after being listed on the Alternative Investment Market, was owned private ...

. It owns and operates 16

racecourse A race track (racetrack, racing track or racing circuit) is a facility built for racing of vehicles, athletes, or animals (e.g. horse racing or greyhound racing). A race track also may feature grandstands or concourses. Race tracks are also us ...

s in

Great Britain Great Britain is an island in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwest coast of continental Europe. With an area of , it is the largest of the British Isles, the largest European island and the ninth-largest island in the world. It is ...

, 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 36 annual Group 1 flat races, the St Leger Stakes and the Racing Post Trophy. History D ...

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 since ...

and Lingfield Park Racecourse, 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 tee box, a fairway, the rough and other hazards, and a green with a cylindrical hole in the ground, known as a "cup". The ...

s at Lingfield, Southwell and

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

Controversial statement by London mayor

In 2006

Ken Livingstone Kenneth Robert Livingstone (born 17 June 1945) is an English 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 London from the ...

, 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, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkm ...

and try their luck with the

ayatollah Ayatollah ( ; fa, آیت‌الله, āyatollāh) is an Title of honor, honorific title for high-ranking Twelver Shia clergy in Iran and Iraq that came into widespread usage in the 20th century. Etymology The title is originally derived from ...

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

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

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 super-majority, to amend the Mayor's annual budget and to rejec ...

stated the brothers were not Iranian, but had been born in India of Iraqi-Jewish parents. After a public complaint and a subsequent official investigation into Livingstone's comments that were alleged to be

anti-semitic Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...

, 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, whilst "robust," was "reasonable" in the circumstances.

The Reuben Foundation

The family's

philanthropic Philanthropy is a form of altruism that consists of "private initiatives, for the public good, focusing on quality of life". Philanthropy contrasts with business initiatives, which are private initiatives for private good, focusing on material ...

vehicle, the

Reuben Foundation The Reuben Foundation is a private foundation established in the United Kingdom created to channel the charitable giving of the Reuben family and David and Simon Reuben. It has a focus on healthcare and education. Formed in 2002 as the Reuben Br ...

, 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 Borough of Barnet, North-West London northwest of Charing Cross. Hendon was an ancient manor and parish in the county of Middlesex and a former borough, the Municipal Borough of Hendon; it has been part of Great ...

in honour of their mother. The foundation has donated £80million to support the creation of

Reuben College, Oxford Reuben College is a new constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. The plans for the new graduate college, preliminarily named Parks College, were announced in December 2018. It is the first new Oxford or Cambridge college fo ...

, originally named Parks College. It will be a post-graduate college focused on climate change, artificial intelligence and cellular life.

Personal life

According to the ''

'' 2020, David and Simon Reuben and their combined family had an estimated net worth of £16 billion, a decrease of £2.664 billion on the previous year. This made them Britain's second wealthiest family. ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper '' The Sunday Times'' ...

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

tax haven A tax is a compulsory financial charge or some other type of levy imposed on a taxpayer (an individual or legal entity) by a governmental organization in order to fund government spending and various public expenditures (regional, local, o ...

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 U.S. 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. The primary purpose of the SEC is to enforce the law against market ...

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