Much has been said lately about the space race starring billionaires Jeff Bezos (Amazon and Blue Origin), Elon Musk (Tesla and SpaceX) and Richard Branson (Virgin Group, to which Virgin Galactic belongs). In the competition to go out to the tourism space, it is the latter that has taken the cat to the water. On July 11, Branson reached a maximum altitude of 85 kilometers with the Unity ship, which allowed him to enjoy a few minutes of weightlessness, opening the way for tourist suborbital flights that he plans to start offering in early 2022.
Currently Branson, the son of a lawyer and a stewardess, enjoys a fortune that, according to the stock market price of the moment, is around 5,000 million dollars. His money comes from a conglomerate of firms grouped under the umbrella of the Virgin brand. More than 360 companies such as the Virgin aeronautical companies, Virgin Books, Virgin Drinks, Virgin Heath Bank, Virgin Hotels, etc… Although it all started more than 50 years ago when, after traveling through the English Channel and buying pirated records or As a bonus, Branson began selling them in London using his car as a point of sale or through outlets (from 1970 he started selling them by mail order).
How Richard Branson made his first million
Perhaps that is why Virgin Records has been Branson's most emblematic company, and it is said that, when he sold it in 1992 (for a billion dollars), he was seen crying inconsolably by London's Ladbroke Grove: he had just separated from the one he considered the jewel in his crown. Although it is true that when he was sixteen years old, he launched his own magazine called Student, getting $8,000 in publicity in his first issue. Branson attributes his success to luck, speed and hard work, but the truth is that his entrepreneurial model is an example of courage, originality, anticipation and playing with the rules, often leaning over the edge of the abyss.
His first million dollars was achieved in 1973 with the album Tubular Bells by Mike Oldfield, a Virgin production that managed to sell five million copies. His label always opted for artists as controversial as the Sex Pistols, The Rolling Stones or Ozzy Osbourne. In 1981 Virgin Books and Virgin Video were born, and three years later they associated with Randolph Fields to create Virgin Atlantic, an aeronautical company with a differentiating purpose in its quality of service. In 2001 he got into the mobile and telecommunications business. The idea of tourist space flights was born with Virgin Galactic in 2004.
Where does the king of Virgin live?
As for personal properties, he is mainly known for five houses and three islands in different areas of the world, including South Africa, Kenya, Morocco, London and Switzerland. His main residence is considered to be Necker Island, one of the British Virgin Islands, located very close to the Dominican Republic, and which he acquired in 1978 for $180,000.
It also has the so-called Kensington Roof Gardens, or Kensington Hanging Gardens, at 99 High Street Kensington. They are the sixth floor and were made between 1936 and 1938 by Ralph Hancock and Trevor Bowen. They occupy 6,000 square meters, can be visited, and are home to a wide variety of tree and fauna species.
Nature is a priority for this billionaire, who owns large estates in protected areas in Africa, such as the Mahali Mzuri in Swahili, Kenya, within the Olare Motorogi Reserve, which includes 13,500 hectares of bush to explore and offers an immersive experience in nature from your luxury tented camp. While close to the Kruger National Park, in the Sabi Sand Reserve in South Africa, is another of his luxury retreats, the 13,500-hectare Ulusaba Private Game Reserve.
Apart from the island where he maintains his primary residence, Branson owns Moskito Island, also located in the British Virgin Islands, which comprises 120 acres of land and has been converted into a luxury vacation resort with three villas; and Makepeace Island, located in Noosa, Sunshine Coast, Australia, which heart-shaped 25 acres was acquired in 2003 as a refuge for the crew of its Virgin Australia airline, but is now rented out.
Passion for speed… and charitable causes
Among his main whims are cars, of which he has a very important collection that includes rarities such as a Humber Super Snipe, a Gibbs Aquada amphibious model, the Fisher Karma luxury electric model, or one of his favorite Range Rover models. , the Range Rover Astronaut Edition SUV, which he used to tow his spacecraft to the launch pad. As for watches, his taste is very heterogeneous, since the same thing is worn on his wrist by a Bulova, a brand for which he is an ambassador and which launched the Bulova Accutron Sir Richard Branson Limited Edition; than a Torgoen T16 whose price is around 420 euros.
Richard Branson is a well-known philanthropist who has declared on more than one occasion that half of his fortune will be bequeathed to charity after his death. But his social activism goes beyond donations, as shown by the fact that in 2018, after the disappearance of journalist Jamal Khashoggi, he put his foot on the brakes in talks with Saudi Arabia, which intended to invest $1 billion in Virgin Galactic. Although others argue that no philanthropic effort in favor of the environment that he makes can alleviate the harmful consequences that the popularization of space tourist trips that he so longs for will bring.
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