align="center">British millionaire to challenge record ruling
A British multi-millionaire said he would challenge a ruling(1) that ordered him to pay his former wife what is believed to be the biggest divorce award in English legal history.
John Charman, 53, has been ordered to pay Beverley Charman a total of 48 million pounds (70.7 million euros, 90.6 million dollars), according a London High Court ruling he described as "unfair and unreasonable".
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The total sum includes eight million pounds of assets already in his wife's name, with the remainder to be paid to her in a lump sum(2).
In percentage terms, the judge held the sum to be just under 37 percent of Charman's assets, built up through the insurance industry. The judge said the assets amounted to(3) just over 131 million pounds.
The couple married in 1976, when neither had significant wealth, and separated in November 2003 before divorcing in April 2005.
Charman, who is based in Bermuda and the United States, said he would appeal(4) this decision as it was "an extraordinary decision by any reasonable standards".
He said he had made an offer to his wife of 20 million, which would be impossible for any reasonable person to spend in their lifetime.
His ex-wife did not want to comment on the ruling, a spokeswoman for her lawyers said.
Concluding(5) the case, judge Paul Coleridge said it was a long marriage where the parties started with nothing and all the wealth was effectively created during its subsistence. And both played their full part in the marriage.