MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Scotland's eleven billionaires are worth an estimated £17.245bn

Rising profits for William Grant & Sons group, which produces whisky including Grant's, Glenfiddich and The Balvenie as well as Hendrick's gin, has seen huge returns for the founder's great-great-gran

Billionaires linked to Scotland have increased their wealth in the past year, according to the Sunday Times Rich List, to be published on Sunday. The 11 billionaires were worth an estimated combined £17.245bn, an increase of £1.038bn in the past year.

Glenn Gordon, the Jersey-based tycoon behind distillers William Grant & Sons, and his family were named as Scotland's richest for the sixth year in a row. His family has more than doubled its wealth in six years to £2.882bn.

Robert Watts, compiler of The Sunday Times Rich List, said: “Many rich listers are this year nursing big losses due to the uncertainty over Brexit, turbulence on the stock market and the enormous change sweeping through our high streets.

”But more than half of our Scottish Rich List have seen their fortunes rise over the past 12 months - that's a higher proportion than other parts of the UK.” People with Scottish connections account for 82 of the 1,000 UK list's richest people.

1. Glenn Gordon and family - spirits - £2.882bn.

2. Sir Ian Wood and family - oil services and fishing - £1.763bn.

3. Mohamed Al Fayed and family - retailing - £1.7bn.

4. John Shaw and Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw - pharmaceuticals - £1.689bn

5. Mahdi al-Tajir - metals, oil and Highland Spring water - £1.66bn

6. Trond Mohn and Marit Mohn Westlake and family - industry - £1.602bn

7. Thomson family - media - £1.401bn.

8. Philip Day - fashion - £1.2bn.

9. The Clark family - of the Arnold Clark car dealership - £1.178bn.

10. Jim Mellon - property and finance - £1.1bn.

11. Jim McColl, of Clyde Blowers - £1.1bn.

Rising profits for William Grant & Sons group, which produces whisky including Grant's, Glenfiddich and The Balvenie as well as Hendrick's gin, has seen huge returns for the founder's great-great-grandson Glenn Gordon.

Mr Gordon has overseen a £310m increase in the family's wealth in the past year, with profits up by 14.4% at their Banffshire-based distillery.

Oil magnate Sir Ian Wood is now in second place on the Scottish list this year, after a £51m increase in his wealth to £1.763bn. He retains a 0.9% stake, worth £33.7m, in energy company Wood Group, which he founded and ran for 50 years before retiring in 2012.

Through his family's foundation, Sir Ian gave away £40m, 2.27% of his wealth, to charitable projects in northeast Scotland, other parts of the UK and Africa.

Glaswegian John Shaw and wife Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw - whose wealth stems from the Bangalore-based pharmaceuticals company Biocon - moved from second to fourth on the list after their estimated fortune dropped £67m to £1.689bn.

The Thomson family, who were originally in shipping but now run the Dundee-based Beano publisher DC Thomson, have grown their wealth by £49m to £1.401bn and sit seventh on the list.

The full rich list is published in a 156-page edition of The Sunday Times Magazine.

It reveals the wealth of the 1,000 richest people in Britain based on identifiable wealth, including land, property, other assets such as art and racehorses, or significant shares in publicly quoted companies. It excludes bank accounts, to which the paper has no access.