James Benamor (born 18 May 1977) is a British businessman.

Business activities

Benamor became one of the wealthiest young people in the United Kingdom after starting his loan brokerage company, the Richmond Group, in 1999 at the age of 21. Richmond Group. The Sunday Times Fast Track 100 list
2 December 2007 Unable to afford advertising at the time he printed leaflets and delivered them on foot, walking 300 km and delivering 30,000 leaflets in the first month. In 2005 he founded

Amigo Holdings Amigo Holdings is a guarantor loans / subprime lender. It is listed on the London Stock Exchange. History The company was established as a mid-cost guarantor loans lender by James Benamor in 2005. Benamor stood down as CEO, handing over the ...

, a guarantor loans lender. Benamor quit the board of Amigo Holdings in March 2020, The Richmond Group did own 61% of the company. until April 2020. In April 2020, Benamor demanded a meeting with the board to replace the current bosses of the company. when this failed the Richmond group sold all of its holdings.

Net worth

In 2018 his net worth rocketed to £1.1 billion when

floated on the

London Stock Exchange London Stock Exchange (LSE) is a stock exchange in the City of London, England, United Kingdom. , the total market value of all companies trading on LSE was £3.9 trillion. Its current premises are situated in Paternoster Square close to St Pau ...

in July 2018. but by April 2020 Amigo shares crashed 90% and as of May 2022, Benamor net worth is now around 100 million. The growth of Benamor's Richmond Group has attracted media attention. In 2007 it was reported by the Sunday Times Fast Track 100 as 29th fastest growing company in terms of sales, in 2008 it was ranked 34th in the UK by the Profit Track 100 for profit growth, and in 2008, 2009 and 2010 it was rated as one of the 100 best companies in the ''Sunday Times'' '100 Best Companies to Work For'. In 2010 Benamor and the Richmond Group won an

Ernst & Young Ernst & Young Global Limited, trade name EY, is a multinational professional services partnership headquartered in London, England. EY is one of the largest professional services networks in the world. Along with Deloitte, KPMG and Pricewaterh ...

Entrepreneur of the year Award.

Criticism

Benamor has been criticised by the

Daily Mirror The ''Daily Mirror'' is a British national daily tabloid. Founded in 1903, it is owned by parent company Reach plc. From 1985 to 1987, and from 1997 to 2002, the title on its masthead was simply ''The Mirror''. It had an average daily print ...

and the

BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board ex ...

for the Richmond Group's ownership of Advantage Loans, a

credit broker In business and law, a credit broker is a company or individual that deals in brokerage of consumer credit. Essentially a credit broker links somebody looking for consumer credit, a debtor with a company or individual willing to provide it, a credit ...

which ceased trading in 2008. He charged applicants a £50 fee but not all of them received a loan. Customers had to struggle to get their money back.

Television appearances

Benamor was featured in an edition of the Channel 4 documentary series Secret Millionaire, aired on 5 August 2008, a show where wealthy business people go undercover to look for deserving people to give money to. The programme was set in Moss Side in

Manchester Manchester () is a city in Greater Manchester, England. It had a population of 552,000 in 2021. It is bordered by the Cheshire Plain to the south, the Pennines to the north and east, and the neighbouring city of Salford to the west. The t ...

and revealed that Benamor had dabbled in drugs and turned to petty crime as a teenager. A follow up show broadcast on Christmas Day 2008 showed that Benamor had continued to work with The Settlement, a

charity which appeared on the original show. This included setting up a work experience scheme which had paid for a number of disadvantaged teenagers from Manchester to visit Bournemouth and undergo training and work experience at his company. The scheme was also covered by the BBC.

References

External links

James Benamor & Richmond Group

Daily Mirror investigation
{{DEFAULTSORT:Benamor, James British businesspeople 1977 births Living people