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Buffet Displaces Gates as World's Richest Person

Christopher Owen

6 March 2008

US Microsoft magnate Bill Gates has been deposed as the world's richest person ends after 13 years at the top, according to Forbes' 2008 World's Billionaires List. Despite being worth $58 billion, $2 billion more than last year, Mr Gates is now judged to be the world's third-richest person, ceding the top spot ranking to US investor Warren Buffett, whose net worth jumped $10 billion to $62 billion. Second is Mexican telecom tycoon Carlos Slim Helú, whose fortune has doubled in just two years to $60 billion. Mr Gates might have held his crown had Microsoft not made an unsolicited bid for search engine giant Yahoo at the beginning of February. Microsoft shares fell 15 per cent between 31 January, the day before the company announced its bid, and 11 February, the day Forbes locked in stock prices for the list. Mr Buffett's reign as the world's richest man is expected to be brief. In the summer of 2006 he irrevocably earmarked the majority of his Berkshire Hathaway shares to charity, most going to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. At the time, the gift was valued at $31 billion but the final amount will far exceed that sum. In October, Mr Buffett appeared before the US Congress to encourage it to keep the estate tax. Armed with a few copies of Forbes magazine, he told the hearing that "dynastic wealth, the enemy of a meritocracy, is on the rise". The UK's richest resident Lakshmi Mittal, came in fourth. He is one of 49 billionaires living in Britain. For the first time, Forbes has identified more than 1,000 billionaires – the list now runs to 1,125 – and their total net worth is $4.4 trillion, up $900 billion from last year. Two years ago, half of the world's 20 richest were from the US but this is now down to four. Meanwhile India now has four among the top 10, more than any other country. The US still accounts for 42 per cent of the world's billionaires and 37 per cent of the total wealth, but Russia is now second with 59 billionaires, overtaking Germany which held second place for six years. Only 35 of the world's billionaires are British. The Duke of Westminster is the richest, ranking 46th with $14 billion. Retail magnate Philip Green comes in 107th with $8.4 billion. The Reuben brothers, who built their fortunes on metals but are now in property, are 178th with $5.5 billlion. The 2008 Forbes rankings include 226 newcomers, of which 77 come from the US, 35 from Russia, 28 from China and 19 from India. Forbes also found 50 billionaires under the age of 40, double the number from last year. And 68 per cent of these built their fortunes from scratch, including Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page; former Enron trader John Arnold, who now runs a hedge fund; India's Sameer Gehlaut, who started online brokerage Indiabulls; and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg, who at age 23 is the youngest self-made billionaire in history. Notable new entrants to the list include China's Gao Dekang, who is one of the world's biggest makers of down jackets and vests; Portuguese cork producer Americo Amorim; and Brazil's Eike Batista, who made and lost a gold mining fortune, before striking paydirt in iron ore. He is now one of the world's richest mining billionaires. But the global financial turmoil has been wreaking havoc on many fortunes. Hong Kong's richest person, Li Ka-shing, lost $5.5 billion of his net worth in the 37 days between 4 January and 11 February, and mainland China's richest person, 26-year-old Yang Huiyan, fell from $17.3 billion in September to $7.4 billion. Google co-founder Sergey Brin's fortune reached $25.5 billion in the past year but is now down to $18.7 billion. Some were hit even harder, falling off the list entirely, including Lehman Brothers' chief Richard Fuld and Bear Stearns' ex-chief James Cayne, both victims of the world's credit crunch, and US house builder William Pulte, whose stock collapsed along with the housing market.