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Britain's super-rich indulge in esoteric spending

Amelia Hill

London: No whim is too ridiculous. No extravagance out of reach. Stratospheric bonuses in the City of London, the U.K.'s financial centre, announced this month and an influx of international financiers have created a fresh echelon of British super-rich living lives of unheard of affluence.

In what has been termed the `Marie Antoinette' syndrome, this breed of the mega-wealthy inhabit a world of riches reminiscent of the French royal court just before the revolution. Personal worth of £500 million and above is common.

"The gap between the rich and the super-rich is getting ever larger," said William Cash, editor of the new quarterly journal Spear's Wealth Management, itself so exclusive that you have to be invited to subscribe — and only those with liquid assets exceeding £5 million need bother inquiring. "The super-rich inhabit a world the rest of society can hardly dream of. It's a parallel universe." Since 2000, the wealth of Britain's richest 1,000 individuals is estimated to have doubled to more than £250 billion between them, thanks to rising property prices, buoyant financial markets and an influx of super-rich from Russia.

Last week, the investment bankers Goldman Sachs — known as `golden sacks' — announced record profits, with large bonuses for senior staff. One was said to have got £50 million. Hundreds of other staff members have collected £1 million payments.

"Because it is no longer anything special to have a liquid wealth of up to £5 million, those in the upper echelon of wealth are having to emphasise their status by spending their money in increasingly imaginative and extraordinary ways," said Frank Rejwan, U.K. managing director of Quintessentially, the global concierge service.

"The super-rich aren't interested in conventional ways of displaying their wealth any more; they're no longer looking to emulate their parents' opulent way of living, added to which they are incredibly competitive with each other and don't want to do anything that they think has been done before. Instead, they are looking for ways to spend their money that demonstrates how savvy, quirky and imaginative they are," he said.

Mr. Rejwan reels off examples: the businessman who demanded that a Premiership footballer be found to play a game with his son; the 12 albino peacocks sought for a party — at three hours' notice; being asked to redesign a London hotel room and organising a trip to Hudson Bay, Canada, in the one month of the year when the world's largest concentration of polar bears gathers on the ice. —

© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006

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