A HAMPSHIRE businessman's year of immense success has seen him ranked in the country's top ten richest people.

Jim Ratcliffe, head of chemicals group INEOS, based in Lyndhurst, has seen his fortune treble in the last 12 months.

INEOS is now the world's third largest chemicals company and Mr Ratcliffe's position of 45 in the 2006 UK rich list to number ten this year.

Last year the married 54-year-old was worth an estimated £1.1 billion. This has now rocketed to an estimated £3.3 billion, according to the Sunday Times Rich List.

INEOS, based in Chapel Lane, has expanded immensely since its £5 billion acquisition of BP's Innovene operation in 2005.

The company is now planning to build a £125 million plant in China by the end of 2009.

Mr Ratcliffe, who began his career with Esso and textiles and chemicals business Courtaulds, built up Ineos after buying out the business from Inspec, BP's former speciality chemicals division, in 1998.

On the company's website he says: "INEOS is a young company. It has grown through a series of related acquisitions to become the world's third largest chemical company with sales of about $33 billion.

"Most of our employees have spent all their working lives in the chemical or oil industry. They arrived at INEOS from companies such as BP, Dow, Degussa, ICI, Enichem, Unilever, Solvay, BASF and Hoechst.

"We have, and unashamedly still continue to extract best practices from this very impressive group of people in all spheres of activity.

"We believe INEOS is a refreshing place to work and we are prepared to embrace new practices. We see the customer as King."

Steel giant Lakshmi Mittal heads the Rich List for the third year running after Mittal Steel's £17.8 billion move for Arcelor, the world's second biggest steel producer, last year.

The Mittal family will own more than 43 per cent of combined company, which now produces 115 million tonnes of steel a year - around 10 per cent of the world market.

The Mittal family's personal wealth is now estimated at a massive £19.25 billion.