Property empire: Hugh Grosvenor, the Duke of Westminster
The Duke of West- minster’s property company paid out over £50million in dividends – despite posting an annual loss.
Grosvenor, which owns large parts of London’s Mayfair and Belgravia, notched up losses of £28.6million in 2023, having made a profit of £110.4million the year before.
The hit came as the group grappled with higher interest rates and patchy demand for its buildings. The value of its global portfolio also declined by £400million in the year to £8.6billion.
But despite this slump, the privately-owned company paid out dividends of £51.1million in 2023 – slightly more than the £49.9million in the previous year.
Grosvenor is entirely owned by trusts, with one of its ultimate beneficiaries being Hugh Grosvenor, the Duke of Westminster, 33.
He is the King’s godson and Britain’s 11th-richest person and inherited the business in 2016 after his father Gerald died.
The group owns about 300 acres of land in London which have been under the control of the family for over 300 years, and also property in the US, Australia, Poland and Brazil.