London, Apr 27: Indian-born steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal is the richest man in Europe with his fortune estimated at a staggering 27.7 billion pounds, even as he emerged as Britain's wealthiest person for fourth year in a row. Over all, the steel baron, whose wealth saw a whopping increase of 8.5 billion pounds in a year, is the sixth richest in the world, a rich-list published by the Sunday Times said on Sunday.

His company ArcelorMittal is now worth more than 57.2 billion pounds and the Mittal family's 43 per cent stake is worth 24.6 billion pounds.

According to the list, the Ambani brothers, Mukesh and Anil, although they have parted ways, together were rated as the richest in the world at a combined worth of 43 billion pounds, ahead of America's Walton family, owners of Wal-Mart (38.4 billion) and Microsoft chief Bill Gates (29 bn pounds).

There were two more Indian entries in the list of 50 richest in the world in 2008 - K P Singh (property - 15 billion pounds and Shashi and Ravi Ruia (steel, oil telecoms - 7.5 billion pounds).

Meanwhile, the Hinduja brothers, S P Hinduja and G P Hinduja, Chairman and President, respectively of the group were Britain's second richest with 6.2 billion pounds.

Leading NRI entrepreneur Lord Swraj Paul was the fourth among the ten richest Asians in Britain, the list said. The London-based Caparo Group of 77-year-old Lord Paul, British Ambassador for Overseas Business, is making hefty investments in the booming Indian economy. In 2006, its profits were 55 million pounds on 660 million pounds sales. The richest 1,000 people in Britain have seen their wealth quadruple under the Labour regime.

The collective wealth of the 1,000 richest has jumped to 412 billion pounds, up from 99 billion pounds in 1997. Total net wealth during the same period has slightly more than doubled.

Among others in the richest Asians in Britain were Anil Agarwal (mining, 2.45 b pounds), the Jatania brothers (toiletries, 1.1 b pounds, Sir Anwar Pervez (cash and carry, 717m pounds) and Bhikhu and Vijay Patel (Pharmaceuticals, 520 m pounds).

Tom Singh (Fashion, 464 m pounds), Gulu Lalvani (Consumer electronics, 450 m pounds) and Naresh Goyal (Airlines, 420 m pounds) also figured in the elite list.

From 1998 to 2005, the Mittals had 1.57 billion pounds in dividends from its steel operations. Mittal is also a shareholder in Queens Park Rangers, a football club in the UK.

If that was not enough, the 57-year-old entrepreneur, not content with running the world's biggest steel company, ArcelorMittal, has submitted a bid for the ailing steel plant of his brother Pramod in Kremikovtzi.

The report said when the Hinduja Group celebrates its 100th anniversary in 2014, it is estimated that 25 billion pounds will have been pumped into the Indian economy via investments in industry or infrastructure projects.

The Hinduja property portfolio in India is growing with plans to develop sites in Bangalore and Hyderabad, each valued at about 2 billion pounds.

Mining group Vedanta Resources, owned by Anil Agarwal, plans to spend 2.5 billion pounds building an aluminium plant in West Bengal.

As per the list, Naresh Goyal and family's wealth has declined from 512 million pounds to 420 million pounds during the year.