Cadogan is the chairman of Cadogan Group, a closely held real estate company that controls more than 90 acres of London property. The estate had a market value of 6.2 billion pounds ($7.9 billion) on Dec. 31, 2018. It's belonged to his family since 1717. The billionaire is an eighth-generation descendant of the first Earl Cadogan.
Charles Gerald John Cadogan's net worth of $7.60B can buy ...
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The majority of Cadogan's fortune is derived from the Cadogan Group, his family's property development investment and fund management business. The company controls about 93 acres of land in London's Chelsea neighborhood, which had a market value of 6.2 billion pounds ($7.9 billion) on Dec. 31, 2018, according to valuations prepared by chartered surveyors for the company's 2018 annual report. Charles Cadogan is attributed full ownership of the fortune in this analysis to reflect his status as life president of the Cadogan Group.
The value used in this analysis -- $6.8 billion -- deducts the company's borrowings of 742 million pounds, according to its annual report, and reflects the exchange rate on July 2, 2019. Cadogan is credited with the entire estate as his title gives him control of his family's assets, according to a 2012 article in the Times of London.
Cash holdings are valued based on an analysis of dividends, market performance, insider transactions, taxes and charitable contributions.
Charles Cadogan was born in 1937 and educated at Eton College, a U.K. boarding school. He completed two years of national service with the British Army before joining merchant banker Schroder Wagg in London. He married Lady Philippa Wallop in 1963, with whom he had three children. She died in 1984. Five years later, he wed Jennifer Rae, a cook at the London members' club he frequented. They divorced in 1994, the same year he married a nurse, Dorothy Ann Shipsey.
The foundations of the Cadogan estate date back to 1717, when a Cadogan ancestor married Elizabeth Sloane, the daughter of Hans Sloane, a physician to the royal family who owned 166 acres of Chelsea land in London. Most of this real estate was inherited by the titled Cadogan family when Hans Sloane died in 1753. It has formed the basis of the family's wealth and been passed down through seven generations.
Cadogan inherited the estate -- and the title of eighth Earl Cadogan -- when his father died in 1997. He gained control of the family's property holding company, Cadogan Group, in 1974, and as chairman oversaw a number of developments, including the purchase of the Duke of York Headquarters army barracks in 2000. The Chelsea site was redeveloped to include housing, retail outlets and the Saatchi Gallery. Concert venue Cadogan Hall was refurbished and reopened in 2004 and is now the permanent home of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.
Earl Cadogan retired as chairman of Cadogan Group in 2012 and was succeeded by his son, Viscount Chelsea.