For four years in a row, Carlos Slim Helu of Mexico is number one on Forbes’ List of Billionaires. The next slot is still occupied by William Gates of Microsoft. But Warren Buffet of Berskshire Hathaway is now at the fourth slot, ousted by Zara’s Amancio Ortega whose increase in wealth amounting to $19.5 billion is the highest gain this year.
Net worth
Carlos Slim has a net worth of US$73 billion while Bill Gates is worth US$67 billion. Ortega is worth US$57 billion. His income was boosted by increased profits and the resulting increase in shares of Inditex, his company. The recently released list of billionaires shows that those in the list are collectively $800 billion richer than they were last year.
The billionaires on the latest top ten include Bernard Arnault (Louis Vuitton), Lilian Bettencourt (L’Oreal cosmetics), Charles and David Koch of the United States and Li Ka Shing of Hong Kong. And while Ortega made it to the top three with his company doing very well in the stock exchange, he is not alone with that kind of luck. Larry Ellison’s Oracle hit it big in stock market as well. Ellison is at number five with $73 billion to his name.
Averages and Outliers
Forbes chooses the people on the list by computing for their total assets and determining their debts. The list features a total of 1,426 names, 442 of which are Americans. There are 386 billionaires from the Asia-Pacific region on the list as well as 366 Europeans, 129 from South America, and 103 from the Middle East and North Africa.
The total wealth amounts to $5.4 trillion and is by far the all-time high. The average age of the top ten Forbes billionaires this year is 74. And this year, Forbes discovered 210 new billionaires from 42 countries around the world. And this time there are 34 women billionaires joining the luminaries.
Women Billionaires
The current number of women in the Forbes List is now 140 from 138 last year. The United States has the most number of female billionaires at 50. European women billionaires total 35 while there are 22 in the Asia-Pacific region.
Bettencourt of L’Oreal at number nine and worth US$30 billion is the wealthiest woman in the world. Among those who are on the list for the first time are Tony Burch (fashion designer) and Judy Faulker (health record software). Most of the women on the list inherited their fortunes through blood relations or divorce (e.g. Elaine Wynn of Wynn Resorts and recently divorced from husband Steve who is a casino magnate).
Among those who came into billions of dollars of inheritance are Christy and Alice Walton of Wal-mart, Susanne Klatten (BMW), Margarita Louis-Dreyfus (number 198) and Denise York of the San Francisco 49ers.
Dropped
Due to shady holdings, unknown status and whereabouts, and undetermined assets, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, a known drug lord from Mexico and leader of the Sinaloa Cartel has been dropped from this year’s list. Including Guzman, a total of 60 people were dropped from the list. In addition, eight people from the 2012 list have died.
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