Bill Gates tops Forbes billionaires list for the 12th year in a row; Mittal slips to 5th
10 Mar 2006
Microsoft founder Bill Gates continues to be the richest man in the world with an estimated net worth of $50 billion. He is followed, once again, by the world''s most famous investor Warren Buffet with a net worth of $42 billion in the annual Forbes billionaires'' list.
Mexican industrialist Carlos Slim is at No.3 with a net worth of $30 billion followed by Ingvar Kampard, founder of retail chain IKEA, with $28 billion.
Lakshmi Mittal, who was third in last year''s list, dropped to 5th place with a net worth of $23.5 billion.
Others
in the top 10 include Paul Allen, co-founder of Microsoft,
at No.6, Prince Al Waleed of Saudi Arabia at No.8 and
Li Ka-Shing of Hutchison Whampoa, which part owns Indian
cellular operator Hutch, at No.10.
114 new members were added to the list for 2006 published
by Forbes yesterday. The combined net worth of
the world''s billionaires rose to $2.6 trillion, or Rs11,570,000
crore, as asset prices have rallied over the last year.
The calculations were based on asset prices and exchange
rates as on 14 February 2006.
78 women have been included in the list, including 10 new members.
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