Celebrity Net Worth: Gordon Ramsay invests $100 million in US cookware maker

Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay has teamed up with Rupert Murdoch’s Fox Corp to invest $100 million in HexClad, the maker of non-stick cookware, in an expansion of their food-based entertainment partnership.

The minority investment will be made by Studio Ramsay Global, a joint venture between broadcaster Fox and Ramsay that produces food-orientated TV shows, the companies said on July 16.

The deal includes both cash and media commitments, they said.

The British celebrity chef, 57, has a net worth of $220 million, according to celebrity wealth tracking platform Celebrity Net Worth.

He has opened a number of celebrated restaurants, launched his US-based TV show Hell's Kitchen and has regularly been featured on the Food Network.

He has restaurants in Dubai, Tokyo, London, New York, Ireland and Canada, and has become a cornerstone of Fox food-orientated programming that includes Next Level Chef, Kitchen Nightmares and Gordon Ramsay’s Food Stars.

Ramsay and Fox formed Studio Ramsay Global three years ago and recently launched Bite, a food and entertainment-focused multimedia brand.

The agreement with HexClad marks the first investment in a consumer product by the partnership, though Ramsay personally acquired a stake in HexClad in 2021.

The celebrity chef has acted as a brand ambassador for HexClad. He has used the cookware on his TV shows and in his restaurants.

Los Angeles-based HexClad, founded in 2016, was forecast to generate $350 million in revenue in 2023, co-founder Daniel Winer told the Modern Retail podcast last year.

Sales soared during the Covid-19 pandemic after HexClad sent pans to celebrities who posted their use on social media. The closely held business has a valuation greater than $1 billion.

Ramsay’s real estate portfolio includes a five-bedroom mansion in Bel Air, Los Angeles, a home in London, and at least three homes in the English seaside town of Fowey, Celebrity Net Worth reported.

He is a car enthusiast and Ferrari lover and has a sizeable collection, including a Ferrari LaFerrari painted in Grigio Ferro, a Ferrari 488 Spider, a Ferrari 812 Superfast, an Aston Martin DBS Superleggera, a McLaren Senna and a Porsche 918 Spyder, according to the website.

He sold a 50 per cent stake in his North American restaurant business to private equity firm Lion Capital in 2019.

Lion Capital will invest $100 million to build 100 Gordon Ramsay restaurants in the US in the next five years.

Jared Leto

US actor and musician Jared Leto joined a $60 million funding round in a start-up called Captions, which develops generative artificial intelligence in the video creation and editing space, as venture capital investors continue to pour billions of dollars into AI companies that are trying to compete with industry heavyweights OpenAI and Google.

Captions announced its series C funding round on July 9, in which Leto invested alongside venture capital heavyweights such as Kleiner Perkins, Sequoia Capital and Andreessen Horowitz, as well as Index Ventures and Adobe.

The start-up said that with the series C round, which values the company at $500 million, it has now raised $100 million.

Leto previously invested in another generative AI start-up called Pika in June.

Designers for Leto’s rock band, Thirty Seconds to Mars, have experimented with Pika and incorporated its videos into some of the footage shown on stage at concerts, Bloomberg reported.

Leto, who has starred in films such as Fight Club, Girl, Interrupted, Dallas Buyers Club and Suicide Squad, has a personal fortune estimated at $90 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth.

Outside of his acting career, Leto, 52, is also the frontman and primary songwriter for Thirty Seconds to Mars, which he started with brother Shannon in 1998. They released their debut album, 30 Seconds to Mars, in 2002.

The band has sold more than 15 million albums.

Leto is also the founder of social media management company The Hive, concert ticket company Adventures In Wonderland (whose name changed in 2013 from The One and Only Golden Tickets) and live-streaming video service VyRT, according to Celebrity Net Worth.

He was also an investor in website Reddit, private jet airline Surf Air and financial services company Robinhood.

In 2015, Leto purchased a home in Laurel Canyon, Los Angeles, for $5 million. The home, which was once the Lookout Mountain Air Force Station, contains eight bedrooms and 12 bathrooms, the website reported.

Kriti Sanon

Kriti Sanon has purchased a 2,000-square-foot plot in the coastal town of Alibaug, in the west Indian state of Maharashtra, for 20 million rupees ($239,047), according to media reports.

Previously, actor Amitabh Bachchan acquired a 10,000-square-foot plot in the same project in Alibaug for more than 100 million rupees, the reports said.

“Buying land on my own has been quite an empowering journey. I was looking for peace, privacy and a great investment addition to my portfolio,” said Sanon, who owns a home in Mumbai's Juhu suburb.

The Indian actress, 33, has a net worth estimated at $2 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth.

Last year, Sanon launched skincare brand Hyphen in partnership with PEP Technologies, the personal product care company behind Indian cosmetics brand MCaffeine.

PEP Technologies is the majority shareholder in Hyphen, with an initial investment of 300 million rupees, according to India's Financial Express newspaper.

She also owns a production company called Blue Butterfly Films.

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Last year, she co-founded The Tribe, a fitness start-up that offers virtual and in-studio training and nutrition plans.

A former model, Sanon has appeared in more than 30 films, including Telugu and Hindi.

Aside from her film income, she has also endorsed brands such as Cadbury, Bata, Titan and Coca-Cola.

Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck

Jennifer Lopez and Ben Affleck have listed their Beverly Hills mansion for sale for $68 million, Celebrity Net Worth reported.

If they find a buyer for the home, known as Crestview Manor, Affleck and Lopez will be turning a profit of about $8 million on the $60.85 million they spent on the property.

The mansion has 38,000 square feet of living space, 12 bedrooms and twice as many bathrooms.

The compound also includes a 5,000-square-foot guest penthouse, a caretaker's house and a gatehouse, plus a 12-car garage and an indoor sports complex.

Lopez, 54, has an estimated net worth of $400 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth.

Her fortune is almost entirely self-made.

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A significant portion comes from studio albums and supporting tours and residencies over a two-decade career. Her 2019 It’s My Party world tour took in $68.4 million from 33 performances, including stops in Egypt, Israel and Russia.

Movie and television work, including production credits, account for another chunk of Lopez’s earnings.

In 1997, she became the first Latin actress to earn more than $1 million for a film, for her work on the biopic of Tejano singer Selena.

The American Idol guest judge also pulls in millions of dollars annually from endorsements for brands such as fashion labels Versace, Guess and cosmetics company L’Oreal.

Affleck, 51, is estimated to have a personal fortune worth $150 million, according to Celebrity Net Worth.

One of the actor and producer's largest career base salary acting paychecks (before backend bonuses) was the $15 million he earned from the 2003 movie Paycheck, according to the website.

At his peak, Affleck was earning $15 million to $20 million per movie with backend, it said.

UK's plans to cut net migration

Under the UK government’s proposals, migrants will have to spend 10 years in the UK before being able to apply for citizenship.

Skilled worker visas will require a university degree, and there will be tighter restrictions on recruitment for jobs with skills shortages.

But what are described as "high-contributing" individuals such as doctors and nurses could be fast-tracked through the system.

Language requirements will be increased for all immigration routes to ensure a higher level of English.

Rules will also be laid out for adult dependants, meaning they will have to demonstrate a basic understanding of the language.

The plans also call for stricter tests for colleges and universities offering places to foreign students and a reduction in the time graduates can remain in the UK after their studies from two years to 18 months.

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Mercer, the investment consulting arm of US services company Marsh & McLennan, expects its wealth division to at least double its assets under management (AUM) in the Middle East as wealth in the region continues to grow despite economic headwinds, a company official said.

Mercer Wealth, which globally has $160 billion in AUM, plans to boost its AUM in the region to $2-$3bn in the next 2-3 years from the present $1bn, said Yasir AbuShaban, a Dubai-based principal with Mercer Wealth.

“Within the next two to three years, we are looking at reaching $2 to $3 billion as a conservative estimate and we do see an opportunity to do so,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Mercer does not directly make investments, but allocates clients’ money they have discretion to, to professional asset managers. They also provide advice to clients.

“We have buying power. We can negotiate on their (client’s) behalf with asset managers to provide them lower fees than they otherwise would have to get on their own,” he added.

Mercer Wealth’s clients include sovereign wealth funds, family offices, and insurance companies among others.

From its office in Dubai, Mercer also looks after Africa, India and Turkey, where they also see opportunity for growth.

Wealth creation in Middle East and Africa (MEA) grew 8.5 per cent to $8.1 trillion last year from $7.5tn in 2015, higher than last year’s global average of 6 per cent and the second-highest growth in a region after Asia-Pacific which grew 9.9 per cent, according to consultancy Boston Consulting Group (BCG). In the region, where wealth grew just 1.9 per cent in 2015 compared with 2014, a pickup in oil prices has helped in wealth generation.

BCG is forecasting MEA wealth will rise to $12tn by 2021, growing at an annual average of 8 per cent.

Drivers of wealth generation in the region will be split evenly between new wealth creation and growth of performance of existing assets, according to BCG.

Another general trend in the region is clients’ looking for a comprehensive approach to investing, according to Mr AbuShaban.

“Institutional investors or some of the families are seeing a slowdown in the available capital they have to invest and in that sense they are looking at optimizing the way they manage their portfolios and making sure they are not investing haphazardly and different parts of their investment are working together,” said Mr AbuShaban.

Some clients also have a higher appetite for risk, given the low interest-rate environment that does not provide enough yield for some institutional investors. These clients are keen to invest in illiquid assets, such as private equity and infrastructure.

“What we have seen is a desire for higher returns in what has been a low-return environment specifically in various fixed income or bonds,” he said.

“In this environment, we have seen a de facto increase in the risk that clients are taking in things like illiquid investments, private equity investments, infrastructure and private debt, those kind of investments were higher illiquidity results in incrementally higher returns.”

The Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, one of the largest sovereign wealth funds, said in its 2016 report that has gradually increased its exposure in direct private equity and private credit transactions, mainly in Asian markets and especially in China and India. The authority’s private equity department focused on structured equities owing to “their defensive characteristics.”

Race 3

Produced: Salman Khan Films and Tips Films
Director: Remo D’Souza
Cast: Salman Khan, Anil Kapoor, Jacqueline Fernandez, Bobby Deol, Daisy Shah, Saqib Salem
Rating: 2.5 stars