Mark Bamford, 62, is a director of five subsidiaries of Rocester, England-based JCB, Europe’s biggest construction- equipment manufacturer. He inherited at least 25 percent of the group after his father’s death in 2001, according to court documents filed in the U.K. crown dependency of Jersey in 2003.

JCB had revenue of 2.7 billion pounds ($4.3 billion) in 2012, as sales doubled in Africa and jumped 20 percent in the Americas. The stake is valued using published 2012 financials and the average enterprise value-to-earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortization and price-to-earnings multiples of two comparable publicly traded companies: Caterpillar Inc. and Komatsu Ltd. Enterprise value is defined as market capitalization plus total debt minus cash.

The company is often associated with Bamford’s 67-year-old billionaire brother, Anthony, who’s been its chairman since 1975. Anthony owns a 200-foot yacht and Barbados home, and was knighted by Queen Elizabeth II in 1990.

Longtime Mistress

Mark keeps a lower profile. He joined the company in 1969 and is on the board of five subsidiaries of JCB, according to regulatory filings at U.K. Companies House. The brothers control JCB through two Bermuda-based entities -- AB Bermuda Trust One and MB Bermuda Trust One -- their father created in 1996, around the time he passed half of JCB to his sons, according to court documents filed in 2002 in Jersey.

When he died in 2001, the elder Bamford stipulated in his will the remaining half of the company be “subject thereto upon trust in equal shares,” for the benefit of his two sons, the documents showed. He made his longtime mistress, Jayne Ellis, the income beneficiary of the shares.

The Bamfords sued over the will’s distribution and reached an out-of-court settlement with Ellis. Anthony Bamford was quoted by the Birmingham Post newspaper in May 2005 saying the “company continues in the exclusive ownership of the Bamford family.”

The exact split between the brothers isn’t disclosed. Anthony is credited with 75 percent of JCB because of his operational control over the business. Mark is assigned the 25 percent he received in his father’s will in 2001.

Nigel Chell, a JCB spokesman, said the Bamfords declined to comment on the calculation of their net worth, and said attributing the company to “Bamford family interests” is the most accurate way to refer to the company’s ownership.

Food Purity