Case No. BV20D07073

42.I should briefly refer to the respective Position Statements filed by each party at the commencement of the litigation. That of Mr Bishop QC and Mr Harvey on behalf of the Husband asserts that the magnetic feature in the case is the non- matrimonial wealth brought to the relationship by the Husband, which, they say, exceeds the current value of the assets if uprated for inflation. They add that, in June 2004, the Husband had assets worth £57.3 m. There has been little change to the composition of the assets, as, they say, the Husband still has BT and the Firm H and POC portfolios, albeit it the latter two are now in the name of the Wife. The money the Husband earned in the early years of the marriage was largely lost in the 2008 banking crisis. NN must be sold as it is exceptionally expensive to run and maintain. Their client had not transferred any assets until the deemed domicile issue arose. They accept the assets were effectively transferred but it is “manifest” that the Husband never intended to share ownership with the Wife. BT is clearly non-matrimonial as it was never placed in joint names, unlike when it was purchased in joint names with the Husband’s first wife. It is a commercial farm and the properties there are barely habitable. The shares were only given to the Wife as part of the tax planning in 2017. The exchange rate has increased since the date of the marriage, such that the Husband’s wealth has increased for that alone from £57 million to £94.3 million. BT has increased in value from £5.2 million to £29 million. They criticise the advice the Husband received in 2017, pointing out that there is no inheritance tax in Country C, so the Husband could have avoided any such concerns by returning there once the children had completed education. A term life policy could have covered the position in the interim. The Husband had no intention to “matrimonialise” the assets but, if he did, that does not mean that the assets should be divided equally. They therefore argue that the case should be dealt with on the basis of the Wife’s reasonable needs, generously assessed. They put her housing need at £8 million and her income needs at £557,000 per annum net, which would require a