Sir Richard Branson loses £1.8bn a year as spaceflight dreams are shattered

Sir Richard Branson's net worth has plummeted 40 percent due to massive losses incurred by his space tourism and satellite projects. Credit: JOE SKIPPER/REUTERS

Sir Richard Branson's net worth has dropped £1.8bn in a year as the spaceflight mogul's dreams have come crashing down.

The value of the British billionaire's net worth has fallen by more than a year than 40 percent. , according to the Sunday Times rich list.

The decline was mainly due to large losses incurred by its space tourism and satellite projects, which never came to fruition.

Virgin Orbit went bankrupt last month after spending more than $1bn (£800m) trying to build a commercial spacecraft launch business.

The company's latest mission ended in failure when a rocket launched from Cornwall's launch site , encountered a technical problem and fell into the sea.

Virgin Orbit filed for bankruptcy last month after spending £800m trying to build a commercial spacecraft launch business. Credit: PA Media/Ministry of Defense

Sir Richard, who lives on a private island in the Caribbean, has also suffered losses in other parts of his empire, including Virgin Atlantic, the Virgin Active gym group and Virgin Money.

Virgin Atlantic was forced to go for it. secure a £1.2bn rescue deal from private investors to keep the airline afloat during the pandemic.

The businessman and his family were worth around £4.2bn last year, according to the Sunday Times, placing him 44th in the rankings. list.

But now he has dropped to number 77 with a net worth of £2.4bn.

The fall is more serious than Sir Richard admitted in an interview with the BBC earlier this month .

He said the pandemic had robbed him of «perhaps £1.5bn» of his fortune, adding: «There was a time when it really looked like we were going to lose everything.»

The rich list also showed that Prime Minister Rishi Sunak and his wife Akshata Murthy lost £200 million as the value of her stake in her father's company plummeted.

The couple is worth an estimated £529m, up from £730m a year ago.

Rishi Sunak and his wife Akshata Murthy's fortunes fell by a quarter to £529m. Credit: Peter Morrison/AP

Ms Murthy owns a small stake in Infosys, the $64 billion Indian IT giant founded by her father. Shares in the company have fallen by about one-fifth over the past year.

Gopi Hinduja and his family are back at the top of the wealth list at £35bn — up £6.5bn over the past year and the biggest fortune ever ever recorded in the ratings.

This happened a few days after the death of his brother SP Hinduja. The Hinduja Group conglomerate owns companies around the world, spanning sectors from banking to oil and automobiles.

Ineos billionaire Sir Jim Ratcliffe has catapulted to number two with a combined net worth of £29.7bn.