In 1717, a member of the Cadogan family married the daughter of Hans Sloane, a physician to Britain’s royal family who owned 166 acres of land in London’s Chelsea neighborhood.
(Bloomberg) — In 1717, a member of the Cadogan family married the daughter of Hans Sloane, a physician to Britain’s royal family who owned 166 acres of land in London’s Chelsea neighborhood.
That union paved the way for the Cadogans to become major landlords in the UK capital, and they’re still passing down assets originating from that marriage more than three centuries later.
Edward Cadogan, 57, became the 9th Earl Cadogan on Sunday following the death of his billionaire father Charles at age 86. His succession marks a new era for one of Britain’s biggest aristocratic fortunes that spans five-star hotels, high-end restaurants and some of London’s most famous retail districts.
Read More: Billionaire Who Owned Much of London’s Chelsea Dies at 86
Edward, a former member of the Royal Air Force and current Cadogan Group chairman, today oversees a roughly $6.4 billion fortune through his hereditary title and role at his family’s London-based firm, making him Britain’s 11th-richest person, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The value of the family’s property holdings rose about 32% over the past decade, largely mirroring UK land values.
Charles “passed on a business that is in much better fettle than when he inherited it,” Cadogan Group said in a statement on the patriarch’s death.
Chelsea Fortune
The Cadogans trace their lineage back more than 1,000 years, but their path to riches accelerated in 1776. Charles Sloane Cadogan – the first earl under the current ancestral line — inherited swathes of London property that year that his grandfather Hans Sloane acquired six decades earlier.
The family managed to preserve its lineage and fortune over the following centuries, surviving Napoleonic battles as well as the Blitz, and redeveloped large parts of Chelsea with red-bricked mansions as the neighborhood became a hub for London’s wealthy and bohemian populations.
A central part of the Cadogan estate is on King’s Road, a major retail hub for fashion brands including Calvin Klein and Massimo Dutti as well as restaurants and art galleries.
Like other billionaire dynasties such as the Grosvenors behind London’s Westminster and Mayfair districts, the Cadogans also carefully structured their fortune to help maintain their riches.
They hold their property assets through a series of family trust structures that allow them to maintain control across generations and curb tax liabilities when beneficiaries die. UK trusts typically pay inheritance tax once a decade at a lower rate than the standard level of 40%.
Cadogan Group paid out more than £300 million ($379 million) over the past decade, mostly to help cover the 2022 tax bill for the family’s trusts. That year, it paid total dividends of £76.6 million, the biggest sum during that period, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
“We have a comprehensive strategy in place to ensure the substantial funding necessary to meet this tax charge is available,” Cadogan Group said earlier this month in its 2022 results.
Beyond London
Edward, a divorced father of three who counts shooting and skiing among his hobbies, was previously known as Viscount Chelsea and served in the UK Royal Air Force’s ground-fighting unit before joining Cadogan Group, where he succeeded his father as chairman in 2012.
With former CBRE Group Inc. executive Hugh Seaborn, 61, as chief executive officer, the family’s estate has boosted its focus on attracting more global brands to its retail outlets as well as environmental initiatives during the younger Cadogan’s tenure as chairman. While the closely held firm is still focused on London, Cadogan Group said last year it planned to do more deals outside the city to provide an alternative source of income to help fund its tax costs.
Cadogan Group reported record income of £186.5 million for 2022, up 10% from the prior year, while the value of its property portfolio rose to £5.1 billion from £4.8 billion. It previously provided a £20 million fund to support local businesses and organizations during the Covid-19 pandemic and allowed hospitality tenants to pay rent based on their earnings.
Despite Cadogan Group’s involvement in a UK court battle that shows the pressures on bricks-and-mortar retail after the pandemic, the firm is still optimistic about its new era.
Charles Cadogan set it “on a clear and confident course,” the family’s firm said in its statement. “Perhaps his greatest source of pride was being able to pass his chairmanship of the estate over to his son.”
–With assistance from Patrick Winters.
(Adds details of Cadogan Group’s 2022 results in 15th paragraph)
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