Warren Buffett, 77, replaced Bill Gates at the top of Forbes magazine’s annual list of billionaires, ending the 13-year reign of Microsoft’s co-founder.
4 Indians among top 10 billionaires in the world
NEW YORK: Berkshire Hathaway Inc. chairman Warren Buffett, 77, replaced Bill Gates at the top of Forbes magazine’s annual list of billionaires, ending the 13-year reign of Microsoft’s co-founder.
Buffett’s wealth increased $10billion to about $62 billion in the 12 months through February 11, mostly from a gain in his company’s shares, Forbes said in a statement.
Buffet is the majority stakeholder and the chief executive officer of Berkshire Hathaway, a conglomerate of American subsidiaries with the core business of insurance.
“Warren Buffett is a great example of a smart investor who has stayed loyal to his valuation discipline,’’ said Simon Carter, who manages $3 billion at Aegon Asset Management in Edinburgh. “By taking advantage of the markets’ preoccupation with short-term issues during downturns, he has reinvested his cash at very attractive rates over his entire career.’’
A year ago, in his letter to investors, Buffett said his method was to “be fearful when others are greedy, and be greedy when others are fearful.’’
The fortune of Gates, 52, rose by $2billion to $58 billion. However, the Microsoft chairman fell to third on the list behind Mexican telecommunications mogul Carlos Slim, 68, who has an estimated net worth of $60 billion — he rules the telecommunications sector in Mexico and much of Latin America.
Four Indians figured in the top 10, with steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal placed fourth with $45 billion, followed by petrochemicals magnate Mukesh Ambani with $43 billion. The biggest gainer over the last year is Mukesh’s 48-year-old brother Anil Ambani who ranks sixth on the list. His wealth jumped $24 billion or nearly $3 million an hour to $42 billion. Property king KP Singh stands eighth on the list, with a fortune pegged at $30 billion.
One out of every five billionaires is new to Forbes list this year which counts 1,125 billionaires around the world, up from 946 last year, representing a total net worth of $4.4 trillion and a dramatic increase from 3.5 trillion dollars in 2007.
In Asia, the billionaire’s club swelled by over 30 per cent with freshly-minted technology and real estate barons from India and China leading the charge, according to Forbes.
Forbes’s list shows wealth expanding in emerging markets around the globe, with Russia overtaking Germany as the second-richest country in terms of billionaires, and 70% of newcomers from Russia, India, China and the US.
The list also demonstrated the growing wealth of younger billionaires, with 50 members younger than 40, 68 percent of whom were self-made. The average age dropped to 61, helped by Russia, where the average of billionaires is 46, and China, where the average is 48, the magazine said. China’s richest person is 26-year-old Yang Huiyan. She is the owner of property company Country Garden Holdings Co., listed at 125 with $7.4 billion.
The youngest member on the list was Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, 23, at 785 with $1.5 billion, the youngest self-made billionaire ever to make a Forbes list.
The world’s richest woman, France’s Liliane Bettencourt, the daughter of the founder of the L’Oreal SA cosmetics company, was 17th, with $22 billion. The average net worth of women on the list was $3.7 billion.
“The 22nd annual rankings of the “World’s Billionaires” reflects all sorts of upheavals in the list’s makeup. Two years ago, half of the world’s 20 richest were from the US. Now only four are. India wins bragging rights for having four among the top 10, more than any other country,” pointed out Forbes Associate Editor Luisa Kroll, who oversaw the report.
One-third of the 226 newcomers are Americans. Another third come from Russia, China and India. The rest come from 29 other countries including Portugal, Greece and Nigeria, which welcomes its first billionaire.
With its high-octane growth last year, India provided 19 new faces to this year’s Forbes roster. There were 35 debutants from Russia and 28 Chinese billionaires.
The influx brought the total number of Indian billionaires to 53, up from 36 last year. This also means that India now ranks third in the world for the number of billionaires, trailing the United States, which tops the rankings with 469 billionaires up from 415 last year, and Russia with 87.
Luisa Kroll described Ahmedabad’s Gautam Adani with a fortune of $9.3 billion as a “Notable Newcomer.” Yoga fanatic Adani is a college dropout who spurned his father’s textile trading business to seek his own fortune, first by importing scarce plastic polymers. Forbes says that today he is Asia’s richest newcomer thanks to public holdings, Adani Enterprises and Mundra Port, which listed in November 2007.
Sameer Gehlaut, with a fortune of $1.2 billion is India’s youngest billionaire, and will turn 34 in early March. An engineer from the Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi, he started online brokerage Indiabulls with two college friends in 1999. Forbes said Gehlaut’s early investors included Lakshmi Mittal and hedge fund Farallon Capital.
The group has moved strongly into real estate, scooped up prized land in Mumbai in public auctions and Indiabulls Real Estate, listed in 2007. Gehlaut’s achievement is remarkable given that billionaires have an average age of 57. Sixty-eight per cent of them were self-made, Forbes said.
(With inputs from agencies)
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