CELTIC MANOR owner Sir Terry Matthews is worth more than TV star Lord Alan Sugar, according to this year's Sunday Times Rich List.

Sir Terry has an estimated wealth of £1.24 billion, making him the 119th richest person in the UK and the fourth richest in Wales.

Lord Sugar, who is most known for starring on The Apprentice is believed to be worth £1.21 billion - the 121st richest person in the UK.

Newport-born Sir Terry, 76, owns the five-star Celtic Manor Resort - which hosted the 2010 Ryder Cup and welcomed world leaders including President Barack Obama for the 2014 Nato summit.

Indeed, he was born in the manor house hospital that now forms part of the resort - which added the International Convention Centre to its complex last year.

He has spent £150m over the years on improvements to Celtic Manor, which notched up a profit of £1.7m and showed assets of £77m in 2018, up £7.8m.

Yet most of his worth does not come from the hotel, golf and spa resort.

Since graduating with an electronics degree from Swansea University, the 76-year-old has made much of his wealth in Canada’s hi-tech sector.

He sold telecoms business Mitel twice — offloading a 51% stake to BT in 1985, re-acquiring the trademark and Mitel’s communications division in 2000 and selling it in 2005 in a $230m deal.

South Wales Argus:

(Sir Terry is known in Newport for owning the Celtic Manor. Picture: Julie Sanders.)

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Then in 2018 he struck a deal to sell the whole thing to private investment outfit Searchlight for £1.47bn.

He also created Newbridge Networks and sold that in 2000 for £4.4bn, receiving £1bn for his stake.

More recently, he has backed the Welsh government’s tech start-up scheme under the hashtag #WelshSiliconValleys through his Wesley Clover investment management business. Since 1972 the operation has invested $1bn in more than 100 Canadian companies, with returns reaching $3.5bn.

One he recently funded, Martello Technologies, was listed on the Canadian stock market in 2018.