We all know Rishi Sunak is the richest Prime Minister to have ever taken office, but did you know that his wife, Akshata Murty, has earned more this year than all of Labour’s MPs put together?
As Murty recieves the latest £6.8 million dividend from her father’s company, Infosys, it brings her total dividend income up to £13.5 million for the year. Given that MPs are paid a parliamentary salary of £86,584, amounting to a combined wage bill of £12.8 million for Labour’s 197 MPs, that means Akshata Murty has out-earned the entire Labour party for 2023.
Yet, even the Sunaks have felt the squeeze this year. The couple originally entered the Sunday Times Rich List in 2022, when Sunak was still chancellor, with an estimated combined wealth of £730 million. However, since shares in Infosys, where Murty has a stake of around 1 per cent, lost nearly a quarter of their value, the couple are now estimated to be worth around £529 million, almost a 30 per cent decrease.
Then again, that latest £6.8m payout is due to a year of strong growth from Infosys, with the firm announcing today a 18 rupee (17p) dividend to shareholders following a year of strong growth. But how much is Murty really worth in total, and how did she get so wealthy? Here’s the skinny on her family fortune.
Akshata Murty’s net worth
The majority of Akshata Murty’s net worth comes from Infosys, her family’s tech company, which is valued at around $73 billion (£59 billion).
Infosys was co-founded by Murty’s father, NR Narayana Murthy, in 1981 with an initial capital of $250. Since 2015, Murty has owned just over 0.9 per cent of the Bangalore-based group – a stake that was worth an estimated £690 million last year, according to the Sunday Times Rich List 2022.
The list’s compilers estimated last year that the holding should have delivered at least £54 million in dividends over the seven and a half years leading up to the publishing date of the list (August 2022), including £11 million in 2021 and a £6.7 million payout announced earlier this year. Then there’s the latest dividend payout, worth £6.8m.
However, the value of shares in Infosys decreased in value by about 25 per cent earlier this year, making Murty’s 0.93 per cent stake worth a lot less – £481.2 million at the time of compilation for the Sunday Times’ 2023 Rich List, which was down £208.8 million on last year.
How did Akshata Murty become so wealthy?
As well as the benefits accrued by her father’s business, Murty is also a canny businesswoman in her own right.
After she attended college in the US (private liberal college Claremont McKenna College in California) Murty got her start working for Deloitte and Unilever. Then she took a break to complete her MBA at Stanford University, which is where she met a certain Prada-wearing future prime minister.
The pair married within four years, and meanwhile Murty joined a Dutch “clean technology incubator fund” in San Francisco where she worked as marketing director during 2007, though she left quickly to start her own fashion label, Akshata Designs. The company was not a success and collapsed within three years.
A year later, in 2013, she became the director of venture capital fund Catamaran Ventures and helped to launch its London branch with a little help from Mr Rishi Sunak. The firm was considerably more successful than Akshata Designs, though Sunak had to sell his shares to his wife when he became the MP for Richmond in 2015.
As well as Catamaran Ventures and her Infosys wealth, Murty is also a shareholder in at least six other companies, including Jamie Oliver’s Pizzeria, Bloom & Wild, Wendy’s restaurants in India and New & Lingwood, a men’s apparel store, which “measures Etonians for tailcoats and silk dressing gowns”.
Rishi Sunak’s net worth
The prime minister is not only head of the government but he’s also richer than Elton John. In March it was revealed that Sunak has also had an income of more than $6 million over the past three years and made £1.97 million last year alone. His salary is £156,000.
The couple also have four homes across the UK and in California, worth an estimated $18.3 million, including a 19th century-listed mansion in North Yorkshire and an oceanfront penthouse in Santa Monica.
