Billionaire List Confirms Usual Suspects—But New Names As Well

Contributing Editor

11 March 2005

Bill Gates has topped the Forbes list of billionaires for the 11th year with net worth estimated at $46.6 billion, according to the magazine’s annual survey. But Mr Gates’s wealth declined 0.2 per cent from $46.6 billion last year, Forbes said. Berkshire Hathaway chairman Warren Buffett was second on the list again this year, although the gap with Mr Gates narrowed. Buffett's net worth rose 2.6 per cent to $44 billion. The total net worth of the world's 691 billionaires increased $300 billion to $2.2 trillion, according to Forbes. Mittal Steel chief executive Lakshmi Mittal had the biggest increase in individual wealth of any billionaire on the list and vaulted to the third spot as his fortune increased by $18.8 billion to $25 billion. The Forbes list contains 131 new billionaires, including Martha Stewart, whose net worth was valued at $1 billion by the survey. Other new billionaires included Elena Baturina, Russia's first female billionaire, and Naresh Goyal, founder of Jet Airways, India's largest private airline. Carlos Slim Helu, MCI Inc.'s largest shareholder and the richest Latin American, added $10 billion to his fortune to come in fourth with $23.8 billion, Forbes said. Saudi Arabia's Prince Alwaleed bin Talal fell to fifth with $23.7 billion. Ikea Chairman Ingvar Kamprad came in sixth with $23 billion and Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen was seventh with $21 billion. Karl Albrecht, an owner of the Aldi supermarkets in Germany and Trader Joe's gourmet-food grocery stores in the US, fell to eighth this year from third as his fortune dipped to $18.5 billion from $23 billion. Oracle chief executive Larry Ellison was ninth with $18.4 billion. The billionaires have an average age of 64, and 29 of them are younger than 40, Forbes said. Sixty-eight are female and 26 are single. Of the list, 388 are self-made, meaning they did not inherit their money, and 18 are high-school dropouts. The billionaires come from 47 countries, with first-time tycoons from Iceland, Ukraine, Poland and Kazakhstan, Forbes said. Germany's Albert von Thurn und Taxis, who has a fortune with $2 billion, is the youngest billionaire on the list at age 21, Forbes said. John Simplot, who made his fortune processing potatoes, is the oldest at 96. Saudi Arabia's Saleh Bin Abdul Aziz Al Rajhi has the most children, with 60 offspring.