| The Reuben brothers - David, 65, and Simon, 62 - have put their slide rules to good use this year. They have invested £146m in Elliott Bernerd's (qv) buyout of Chelsfield and £310m in a retail property portfolio in conjunction with Tom Hunter (qv). The brothers have acquired a majority stake in the ERMEWA rail group and holdings in a number of smaller property companies. The Reubens are also involved in a joint bid worth up to £350m for parts of the Queens Moat Houses hotel company. They have been underbidders on a number of occasions, for instance for Selfridges and the Scottish & Newcastle pubs, showing they will not overpay. The brothers can contemplate such moves thanks to their work in the 1990s in Russia, where they were dubbed the "metal tsars". But their origins were anything but regal. The Reubens made their way from their Bombay birthplace to London, where Simon went into property and David started trading in scrap metal. Their foray into Russia proved extremely controversial - and lucrative. In a long analysis Fortune magazine reckoned the Reubens had made a £1.3 billion fortune from their Russian dealings, which ended in 1999. Our sources suggest their assets are now about £2.1 billion, half in liquid assets such as cash and bonds and half in their growing investment portfolio. We add £100m this year for the return on their cash and liquid investments, taking them to £2.2 billion.
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2003: £2,100m
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