Property/Construction
2018: No.27 - £190m
2017: No.24 - £185m

Simon Clarke takes an active part in the running of Longbridge-based St Modwen, the development company founded by his late father Sir Stan Clarke. The firm has a property portfolio worth more £1.5 billion.

The company has a significant number of development projects reaching completion including a 1,500 home garden village scheme in Rugby and Swansea University’s £450 million Bay Campus. At Longbridge it has been carrying out a £1 billion regeneration project around the newly-created Longbridge town centre. St Modwen is also continuing with its 10 year £150 million redevelopment of the Goodyear site in Wolverhampton where 600 homes are being built.

Revenue is steady at Simon Clarke’s St Modwen regeneration company. The developer saw a fall in pre-tax profits in 2016 to £67 million compared to £235 million in 2015, but the company puts this down to significant one-off valuation gains in 2015. Cashflow, net debt, occupier rates and gearing levels remain healthy.

Some 3,300 jobs are expected to be created in Derby after St Modwen and Network Rail gained outline planning permission for a mixed use development on the 50-acre Derby Triangle brownfield site. Located next to Derby's Pride Park development, the scheme will deliver 780,000 sq ft of offices, warehouses and commercial space.

St Modwen continues to build its residential business as the housing market continues to lift, with a focus on London and the South East with further acquisitions. St Modwen has been involved in the New Covent Garden Market project in Nine Elms developed in a joint venture with VINCI. The 10-acre site has been sold to Hong Kong-headquartered Wanda Commercial Properties in a £470 million deal.

Elsewhere the company is continuing with the expansion of the Burton Gateway business park on the A38.

St Modwen occupies 11,300 sq ft of space at Park Point, the new-build office development in the newly-created Longbridge town centre.

Simon Clarke, aged 5, also owns Shrewsbury-based Rea Valley Tractors which has assets approaching £6 million.

In 2007 the family sold their 56 per cent stake in Dunstall-based Northern Racing for £65.9 million.

Simon Clarke lives on his Staffordshire estate at Dunstall.