Friday, August 5, 2011

Top 10 Billionaires of the World...

To start off, extremely sorry for the long delay in making a post. As some of you already know, I was diagnosed with Dengue fever in mid-June and that wasted a whole month of mine. But the point is that after all that mess, I’m ready to post something which is pretty interesting I’m sure, at least for some of you guys.

Few months back I heard through the radio, that the World’s richest man has increased his wealth further from his earlier numbers, way above the second person in that list. When the radio fellow announced the net wealth of this person, it just struck me like lightning since that value was about 1 ½ times of the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) of Sri Lanka. Phew!!! That’s amazing isn’t it?

You might have already guessed what my topic for the day is. YES, it’s about the top “billionaires” of the world as at now. So let’s dig into some facts about them.

from top left clock-wise - Warren Buffet, Bill Gates, Larry Ellison & Carlos Slim
  • World’s richest man as at August 2011 is the Mexican, Carlos Slim. His net wealth stands at US$ 74 billion (as per Forbes Magazine) which is about 1 ½ times of the GDP of Sri Lanka which stands at US$ 48 billion as per the estimates for 2010. He owns two telecommunications companies (Telmex and America Movil) and his group company is known as Grupo Carso SAB.
  • Second in the list is the owner of the software giant Microsoft, Bill Gates. His net wealth stands at US$ 56 billion. Other than Microsoft, Gates is also the owner of Corbis Plc and Cascade Investments (an investment management company).
  • Renowned investor, Warren Buffet is third in the list with a net wealth of US$ 50 billion, with his investments in Berkshire Hathaway.
  • Surprisingly, the list of “Top 10 Billionaires” includes two Indians. Lakshmi Mittal and Mukesh Ambani are placed 6th and 9th in the list respectively. Mittal has a wealth of US$ 31 billion through his steel company Arcelor Mittal.  Ambani is the renowned owner of Reliance Group in India and has a net wealth of US$ 27 billion. He is also the owner of the Mumbai Indians team which plays the Indian Premier League (IPL).
  • Placed 8th in the list with a net wealth of US$ 30 billion is the Brazilian Eike Batista. His major business interests are on mining, and he is the CEO and owner of the Rio de Janeiro based logistics company EBX Group.
  • The only woman in the list is placed 10th, with a wealth of US$ 26.5 billion. Christy Walton is the wife of John Walton who passed away in 2005 leaving his wealth of US$ 15 billion. John is the son of Sam Walton, the founder of Wal-mart, the highest ranked company in terms of revenue as per the Fortune Magazine for 2011.
The complete list of “Top 10 Billionaires” could be summarized as follows.


No.
Name
Age
Net Wealth (US$)
Country of Origin
1
Carlos Slim
71
$ 74.0 billion
Mexico
2
Bill Gates
55
$ 56.0 billion
United States
3
Warren Buffet
80
$ 50.0 billion
United States
4
Bernard Arnault
62
$ 41.0 billion
France
5
Lawrence Ellison
66
$ 39.5 billion
United States
6
Lakshmi Mittal
60
$ 31.1 billion
India
7
Amancio Ortega
74
$ 31.0 billion
Spain
8
Eike Batista
53
$ 30.0 billion
Brazil
9
Mukesh Ambani
55
$ 27.0 billion
India
10
Christy Walton
55
$ 26.5 billion
United States