His business interests now include health clubs, hotels, property, media and transport and he is best known as a tough-talking business angel on the BBC show Dragons' Den.
With his trading mentality and an emphasis on diversification, he typifies Chinese business strategies—he is in food, textiles, retailing, hotels, property, banking, petrochemicals and telecoms, and even runs an upstart airline (see chart)—and his rise has seemed unstoppable.
Jardine Matheson Holdings Ltd., whose businesses include hotels, property and trading, is making a tender offer to buy back as many as 165 million shares, or 20.4percentt of its total, for as much as $908 million.
Sir David and Sir Frederick Barclay, who also own hotels, property, online shopping and logistics companies that employ 20,000 people, bought the Telegraph titles in 2004 for £665m, installing Sir David's eldest son Aidan as the chairman of Telegraph Media Group.
The property related business engages in the property related business, including hotels, property management, construction, financial services and insurance.
His fortune is up partly on new information on his Indian assets, which include stakes in banks, hotels, property.
