Billionaire David Reuben leaves UK for Monaco

David Reuben, the property tycoon who shares second place on this year’s Sunday Times Rich List with his brother Simon, has left Britain for Monaco, a spokesman for the brothers has confirmed.

Reuben, 88, a Newcastle United shareholder who had been living in Holland Park, west London, moved to the principality over the summer. The spokesman declined to comment further.

The brothers appeared at number two in this year’s Rich List with combined estimated wealth of almost £28bn. David Reuben, who once topped the list, is overseeing separate £1bn restorations of London landmarks.

Simon Reuben, 85, has lived in Monaco for about 40 years, having moved there on health grounds while suffering from cancer. The principality does not impose income tax, capital gains tax or inheritance tax.

The move follows other departures by billionaires since Labour came to power. The steel magnate Lakshmi Mittal has moved to Switzerland, and the hedge fund manager Chris Rokos is moving to Athens.

For many years the Reuben brothers were reported to be “non-doms”, a centuries-old status that allowed wealthy individuals to pay UK tax only on income generated in this country.

Rachel Reeves, the former chancellor, ended that system in April last year. From 6 April 2025 the rules for non-UK domiciled individuals were replaced by a system based on tax residence, according to HM Treasury.

The change has been blamed for the exits of many of the global super-rich from the UK. Many former non-doms left because they feared that the loss of the status would leave all their global assets liable for UK inheritance tax.

Labour’s changes to capital gains tax and inheritance tax have also been blamed for encouraging wealthy residents to move to more lightly taxed jurisdictions. There are expectations that capital gains tax may be increased in the budget on 28 October.

A survey commissioned by S&W, the professional services group, found that half of business owners would consider leaving the UK if the tax was raised in that budget, Business Matters reported last month.

Rich List residents in Monaco

Even before David Reuben’s departure, about £77bn was controlled by UK citizens now resident in Monaco, according to this year’s Rich List. That is more than 10 per cent of the total wealth the list identified.

The figure is higher than for any other low-tax destination, including Switzerland, Dubai and the Channel Islands combined.

Of the 350 individuals and families named in this year’s list, 24 now live in Monaco. They include the chemicals tycoon Sir Jim Ratcliffe, the easyJet founder Sir Stelios Haji-Ioannou and the Formula One driver Sir Lewis Hamilton.

Recent British arrivals include Eddie Hearn, the sports promoter, and Ian and Richard Livingstone, the brothers behind the country house hotel Cliveden.

Of the 350 individuals and families who appeared in the 2024 Rich List, 60 did not appear in this year’s rankings. The most common reason was that they were non-British citizens who had moved overseas. Non-UK citizens are removed from the list once they leave the country.

Born in Mumbai, the Reuben brothers came to the UK in their teens and attended a state school in Islington, north London. Both left full-time education at the age of 17 without A-levels.

They started out in metal trading and carpet importing, and made their first fortunes trading aluminium in Russia after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

They later banked £6.3bn from selling stakes in Global Switch, the IT infrastructure business, in 2016 and 2019.

The brothers have given to educational, health, child welfare and other causes. Their foundation gave £80m to Oxford University to establish Reuben College, the university’s first new college in more than 30 years, which is named after them.

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