THE 2018 Sunday Times Rich List has revealed that a Gwent billionaire's value has dropped.

Sir Terry Matthews’ wealth fell by £95m to £1.075bn, the Sunday Times Rich List reports.

Sir Terry, 74, owns the Celtic Manor Resort and is regarded as one of Wales’ most successful entrepreneurs. A passionate advocate for the national interests of Wales, he lobbied for the Swansea Bay tidal energy project, electrification of the rail line between Cardiff and Swansea, and for the rescue of Port Talbot steelworks.

But, despite his massive wealth, Sir Terry Matthews has dropped one place to come in at number five on the Sunday Times list of the richest people in Wales.

Second only to Sir Michael Moritz this year in terms of the increase in his personal wealth is John Deer, who founded the Renishaw precision engineering business in 1973 at his home in Chepstow.

Swansea-born Deer, 80, went into business with his fellow Rolls Royce work-mate, Sir David McMurtry. The Gloucestershire-based company has seen its value soar to more than £3.5bn in the past year and Deer’s stake in the business of just under 17 percent is now worth around £593m, up £284m in a year.

Cardiff-born private equity billionaire Moritz, 63, made the top of the list. Mr Moritz is a partner in the Silicon Valley firm Sequoia Capital.

The firm provided early funding to Yahoo!, PayPal and WhatsApp, among others, while its £8m investment in Google grew to £6.3bn at its peak. Moritz and his wife Heyman, 63, have donated $50m to the University of Chicago and £75m to the University of Oxford to endow scholarship programmes for low-income students.

The richest group of people in Wales added an impressive £1.039bn to their bank balances this year, with a cumulative wealth of £11.417bn.

The Perkins family, owners of Specsavers, increased their wealth by £100m this year. Turnover rose by 6.6 percent to £2.27bn in 2016-2017 during which period the company sold 20 million pairs of glasses, 425 million contact lenses and 338,000 hearing aids.

In third position, Simon Nixon boosted his coffers by £74m this year, reaching £1.25bn. A university dropout, Nixon co-founded Moneysupermarket.com and has sold around £724m of stock in the business over the years. He now has more than £310m in property holdings globally, £510m in stocks, £270m of tech investments and £160m in hedge funds.

Robert Watts, the Compiler of The Sunday Times Rich List, said: “Our Welsh Rich list epitomises the astonishing change the Rich List has seen over its 30 editions.

“Fortunes are still being made from traditional businesses like housebuilding, insurance and publishing, but it’s striking how nearly half the names of our Wales list made their money through the internet or other forms of technology - often quickly amassing fortunes from businesses that were scarcely imaginable when we compiled our first Rich List back in 1989.

“Gone are the days when the Rich List was dominated by the landed gentry and inherited wealth. We’re seeing a lot more self-made wealth created by entrepreneurs - often from modest backgrounds. In Moneysupermarket’s Simon Nixon and Renishaw’s John Deer our Wales Rich List includes a university dropout and a former Rolls Royce apprentice.”

Wales's Richest:

1 Sir Michael Moritz £2.963bn

2 Douglas Perkins and family £1.7bn

3 Simon Nixon £1.25bn

4 David Sullivan £1.1bn

5 Sir Terry Matthews £1.075bn

6 Steve Morgan £942m

7 Henry Engelhardt and Diane Briere de L’Isle £773m

8 John Deer £634m

9 Mark Watkin Jones and family £350m

10= Lord Heseltine and family £315m

10= Lawrence Jones and family £315m

The full list is available to subscribers at thesundaytimes.co.uk/richlist2018