Reuben Singh is a British businessman of Indian origin. He is famously known as Europe’s Bill Gates. He is the CEO of AllDayPA, a customer service company, and a private equity firm titled Isher Capital in the United Kingdom.
Wiki/Biography
Reuben Singh was born on Monday, 20 September 1976 (age 47 years; as of 2023) in Poynton, Cheshire, England. His zodiac sign is Virgo. He completed his schooling at the William Hulme’s Grammar School in Manchester. He studied English, Business Studies, Politics and General Studies A-levels after doing his GCSEs. When he was 13, he would accompany his mother on trips to East Asia to buy fabrics. At 16, his father paid him a regular salary to run the sales department of the family-owned business Sabco. While studying for A-levels, Reuben Singh set up his first business with the pocket money and salary he saved up in his teenage years.
Reuben Singh’s childhood picture
Physical Appearance
Height (approx.): 5′ 5″
Hair Colour: Black
Eye Colour: Black
Family
Reuben Singh belongs to an Indian Sikh family of immigrants in England, who immigrated to the UK in the 1970s.
Parents & Siblings
Reuben Singh’s father, Sarabjeet Singh, is a businessman, and his mother, Jasbir Singh, is a businesswoman. His father passed away in February 2022.
Reuben Singh with his father
Wife & Children
Reuben Singh is married to Baani Singh. They have two daughters.
Reuben Singh with Baani Singh
Religion/Religious Views
Reuben Singh follows Sikhism.
Reuben Singh at the Golden Temple
Career
Businessman
Miss Attitude
At the age of 19, Reuben Singh started a retail store, Miss Attitude, with an investment of 4,000 pounds, in 1995. In these retail stores, he sold make-up products and fashion accessories at the same place, which was not a common practice in the UK at the time. By 1999, there was a chain of Miss Attitude stores across the UK. In February 1999, he sold the company to Klesch Capital Partners at a reported price of 22 million pounds.
AllDayPA
In 1999, Reuben Singh launched a new business AllDayPA, a contact centre company. In 2 years, the company signed T-Mobile and MBNA as their clients. In 2002, Forbes Magazine valued AllDayPA at more than 90 million pounds and later at over 150 million Dollars by a private equity fund. In October 2007, Singh was declared bankrupt on the petition of the Bank of Scotland, in a dispute when he failed to repay a £900,000 loan to the Bank of Scotland. the case lasted for 3 years from 2004 to 2007. Throughout the years, he remained on the management board of the company, he was discharged from bankruptcy after one year, as is standard procedure in the UK, in October 2008. After a few years, he was again appointed as the CEO of the company. In 2015, AllDayPA moved into a 300-seat call centre in Salford Quays. In 2016, Singh expanded his company digitally and launched a mobile app for AllDayPA. In 2021, under the leadership of Reuben Singh, the company had a merger with CallCare in a 300 million pound deal.
Reuben Singh during an interview
Isher Capital
In 2010, Reuben Singh launched Isher Capital, a boutique private equity firm, based in London and Manchester. In 2014, through Isher Capital, Singh launched his first Business Park acquisition, opening Isher Business Park in Manchester and expanding AllDayPA. In 2018, Isher Capital started an acquisition trial with a 20 million pound fund to make acquisitions in the hope of buying UK contact centres or related businesses and driving managerial and back-office efficiencies. while announcing about the acquisition trial, Singh also said,
As part of our business plan, we want to invest regionally to build our existing portfolio of four contact centres into a national network, rather than two or three supersized operations. This network across the UK will satisfy demand for locally served, knowledgeable, support services, which we believe is key to the success of the sector. Our aim is to bring regional businesses into the fold, to provide them with extra skills and systems to become profitable, whilst preserving and sustaining them for many years to come.”
Reuben Singh in his office at Isher Business Park in Manchester
Philanthropist
In 2015, he started the Reuben Singh Scholarship to support the youth in higher education to work on their business ideas while studying. It is a scholarship worth 9,000 pounds to pay for your education while working on your young businesses.
Other work
In 2002, Reuben Singh was invited by then-UK Prime Minister Tony Blair to serve on a Government Advisory Panel and a Government Task Force. He was also a Founding Member of the Government’s Small Business Council and was appointed by the Prime Minister as an Ambassador for Entrepreneurship.
Controversy
Bankruptcy
In October 2007, Reuben Singh was declared bankrupt by the Bank of Scotland (BoS). BoS declared him bankrupt because of his inability to repay the 900,000-pound loan to the bank. The bankruptcy order, granted by Manchester County Court, came after the bank rejected Mr Singh’s offer to pay back the money over two years. According to a statement made against Singh in court, He owed his father, Sarabjit Singh, 778,813 Pounds and fell 12,000 Pounds behind in payments for one of his cars. He ran up debts of about 140,000 pounds on nine credit cards, owed the Inland Revenue 32,500 pounds for a penalty payment and did not settle an HM Customs and Excise bill for 60,000 pounds. He also owed 9 million pounds to a Kuwaiti business, Badr ITK General Trading Company. According to BoS, they granted a loan to Singh because he deceived them into believing that he was still a well-to-do person. The judge in charge of the case, Judge Kershaw, said that,
the former bank employee who agreed Mr Singh’s overdraft was, I think, to some extent a victim of Mr Singh’s personality as well as Mr Singh’s lies.”
The employee who overdraft Singh’s account reported that he was deceived by Singh’s personality and lifestyle and said,
We were relying on Mr Singh’s guarantee, he had demonstrated throughout a statement of means that he was significantly wealthy and therefore we believed we had comfort under the guarantee.”
In response to all the claims and allegations, Reuben Singh said that he was being framed and said,
I am at a loss to understand why Bank of Scotland did not settle and why it more than doubled its debt with legal costs. I can only surmise there is a personal vendetta against me. The current situation brings to a conclusion a three-and-a-half year process where Bank of Scotland have pursued me in relation to a personal guarantee. During this period, I have offered to repay the whole sum owed over a two-year period. The bank refused to accept that proposal. Subsequently, in court, the bank said it would accept no proposals from me at whatever level those were offered. On the day of the most recent hearing, I offered several hundred thousand pounds to the bank’s representatives to settle. My offer was rejected with no reason for the rejection being put forward. I will continue to co-operate with the official receiver.”
Awards, Honours, Achievements
- In 1998, He was honoured as the world’s youngest self-made millionaire by the Guinness Book of Records.
- In January 2000, he was honoured with his photograph, clicked by Trevor Ray Hart in December 1999, hanged in the National Portrait Gallery in London, England.
- In January 2001, he won the National Business Award for New Business of The Year for AllDayPA.
- In 2002, he won the Asian Entrepreneur of the Year and was awarded by Prince Charles.
- In 2003, he was honoured by The Queen at Buckingham Palace
- In January 2003, he was awarded the Global Leader of Tomorrow (GLT) by the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
- In 2003, he was honoured with the Innovator Accolade by MIT Boston Technology Review Magazine
- In 2005, he was honoured by His Royal Highness Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum.
Car Collection
- Reuben Singh owns the only banana-yellow Bentley Continental in the world which costs 270,000 pounds.
- Reuben Singh owns a Bright Yellow Lamborghini Murciélago.
- Reuben Singh owns six Rolls-Royce of which three are Phantom VIIIs worth Rs 3.35 crore each and three are SUV Cullinan worth Rs 2.32 crore each, he chose colours reminiscent of ruby, emerald, and sapphire for his collection of Rolls Royce vehicles.
Reuben Singh’s Instagram about his Rolls-Royce collection
Reuben Singh posing with his blue Rolls Royce
- Reuben Singh owns a Porsche 918 Spyder.
Reuben Singh driving his Porsche 918 Spyder.
- Reuben Singh owns a Bugatti Veyron.
Reuben Singh posing with his Bugatti Veyron
- Reuben Singh owns a Pagani Huayara.
- Reuben Singh owns a Lamborghini Huracan.
- Reuben Singh owns a Ferrari F12 Berlinetta.
Reuben Singh with his Ferrari F12 Berlinetta
- Reuben Singh owns a white classic Rolls-Royce Corniche and a white Rolls-Royce Dawn.
Reuben Singh posing with his Rolls-Royce Corniche and Rolls-Royce Dawn
Net Worth
As of 2021, Reuben Singh’s net worth was estimated to be more than US$100 million.
Favourites
- Restaurant: Scott’s in Mayfair
- Travel Destination: Switzerland
Facts/Trivia
- In 2017, Reuben Singh became a global celebrity when he started a trend on Instagram, in which he matched the colour of his turban to his cars, calling it the “turban challenge” to raise funds for a charity. This happened after he faced racism because of wearing a turban.
Reuben Singh matching the colour of his turban with his car Turban Challenge
a collage of Reuben Singh’s Turban Challenge pictures
- In August 2020, Reuben Singh was listed in the “20 Inspiring Sikhs Worldwide” in the Urban Mélange Magazine.
- In 1995, a British newspaper estimated his net worth to be £45 million.
- In July 1999, he was appointed as a Member of the Government Competitiveness Council by the Secretary of State for Trade & Industry in the UK.
- In December 1999, he was appointed as a British Ambassador for Entrepreneurship by Chancellor Gordon Brown, former prime minister of the UK and Her Majesty’s Treasury.
- In 2018, Reuben launched the Rolls Royce SUV, Cullinan, along with Rolls Royce CEO Torsten Müller-Ötvös.
Reuben Singh at the launch of the Rolls Royce SUV Cullinan
- Reuben Singh enjoys a huge social media following with more than 600k followers on his Instagram account and more than 11k followers on Twitter.
- Singh also founded a health food company called Robson & Steinberg, which was closed after less than a year due to a debt of £250,000.
- In 2000, Reuben Singh was named “British Bill Gates” by The Sunday Times with his net worth estimated to be £80 million by the Mail on Sunday’s Rich Report.
- Reuben Singh has appeared on many television talk shows and the BBC’s HARDtalk programme. He also gave motivational speeches around the country.
- In 2002, a couple of British magazines and newspapers called Reuben Singh a “little more than a fantasist.” According to the Financial Mail, a South African business publication, his wealth and business success were much less than he claimed. It also claimed that American financier Gary Klesch, the buyer of Miss Attitude, did not buy the company at the reported price but at 1 Euro. Guinness World Records removed Mr Singh’s entry as the world’s youngest self-made millionaire and he was dropped from the rich list. In an interview, Gary Klesch talked about the Miss Attitude deal with Singh and said,
He had a very fancy Mercedes but it turned out it was leased by the company and not owned by him at all. He ran around saying that I paid £55m for Miss Attitude. Although at the time I knew it was a lie, I couldn’t say anything. The deal was subject to a confidentiality clause so I could not say a word. But as he has abused the confidentiality clause, I feel I should tell the truth. If he denies that I bought the company for a pound, let him sue me for libel and a judge can decide who’s right.”
Gary Klesch
On 30 October 2017, Reuben Singh’s spokesperson made a statement on behalf of Reuben Singh and said,
We believe that [from] 1995 to February 1999, Miss Attitude was a highly successful company which invested heavily in the UK, created hundreds of UK jobs and had a national presence. Unfortunately, we feel it would be inappropriate to comment on events after February 1999.”
- Reuben Singh is closely associated with HM King Charles and has met him on multiple occasions. In November 2019, he accompanied King Charles on his trip to India.
Honoured to accompany, HRH Prince Charles, this morning as he visited, Bangla Sahib Gurudwara, New Delhi. Proud I’m able to represent, Britain as a Sikh with my Indian heritage. Been blessed with not one but three identities. It was an absolute honour to show him our culture. pic.twitter.com/U5uQI085ec
— Reuben Singh (@ReubenSingh) November 13, 2019
Categories: Biography
Source: HIS Education