There are 1,426 billionaires in the world this year. They are the wealthiest of the wealthy. But only 23 members of this elite list are under 40 years old, with that exciting combination of money and youth, reports Forbes-
The ranks of the world’s billionaires have yet again reached all-time high. The 2013 Forbes Billionaires list now boasts 1,426 names, with an aggregate net worth of $5.4 trillion, up from $4.6 trillion. It found 210 new ten-figure fortunes. Once again, the U.S. leads the list with 442 billionaires, followed by Asia-Pacific (386), Europe (366), the Americas (129) and the Middle East & Africa (103).
Resurgent asset prices are the driving force behind the rising wealth of the super-rich aroud the globe. While last year almost as many fortunes fell as rose, this year gainers outnumbered losers by 4-to-1. Many new names made the list thanks to free-spending consumers. To name a few: Diesel jeans mogul Renzo Rosso at $3 billion, retailer Bruce Nordstrom at $1.2 billion and designer Tory Burch at $1 billion.
Carlos Slim is once again the world’s richest person, followed by Bill Gates. Amancio Ortega of Spanish retailer Zara moves up to No. 3 for the first time. He is the year’s biggest gainer, adding $19.5 billion to his fortune in one year. He moves ahead of Warren Buffett, despite the fact that the U.S. investing legend added $9.5 billion to his fortune. This is the first year since 2000 that Buffett has not been among the top 3.
Nigeria’s Aliko Dangote and Mike Adenuga made the list. Dangote is on number 43. Adenuga is on number 267.
The cement tycoon retains his position as Africa’s richest man for the third year in a row. The past year has been eventful for 55-year-old Dangote. In October, he sold off a controlling stake in his flour milling company to Tiger Brands of South Africa. He pocketed $190 million in cash. In February, his Dangote Sugar Refineries acquired a 95% stake in Nigerian sugar producer Savannah Sugar in a bid to maintain its dominant position in the Nigerian sugar industry. Dangote stepped up his philanthropy in the past year, giving over $100 million to causes ranging from education to health, flood relief, poverty alleviation and the arts. He also acquired a yacht, which he named after his mother, Amiya. Dangote started building his fortune more than three decades ago when he began trading in commodities like cement, flour and sugar with a loan he received from his maternal uncle. He delved into full production of these items in the early 2000s and went on to build the Dangote Group, West Africa’s largest publicly-listed conglomerate, which now owns sugar refineries, salt processing facilities and Dangote Cement, the continent’s largest cement producer.
Adenuga built a fortune in mobile telecom and oil production. He founded Globacom, Nigeria’s second largest mobile phone network, in 2006. It has 24 million customers in Nigeria, operates in the Republic of Benin and recently acquired licences to start businesses in Ghana and the Ivory Coast. His Conoil Producing is one of Nigeria’s largest independent exploration companies, with a production capacity of 100,000 barrels of oil per day. Adenuga made his first fortune at age 26 in the 1970s by distributing lace and other materials, but he hit it big during the military regime of former military President Ibrahim Babangida.
There are 1,426 billionaires in the world this year. They are the wealthiest of the wealthy. But only 23 members of this elite list are under 40 years old, with that exciting combination of money and youth.
Those 23 have a total of $68 billion between them. Eight come from the technology sector, including four from social networking giant Facebook. Nine come from the United States, the rest from countries abroad. Three are newcomers to the billionaire ranks.
No. 1: Dustin Moskovitz
Age: 28
Net Worth: $3.8 billion
Moskovitz, Mark Zuckerberg‘s former roommate, no longer works at Facebook, the social networking giant that he co-founded. A signee of Bill Gates‘ and Warren Buffett’s Giving Pledge, Moskovitz bikes to work, flies commercial, and pitches his own tent at Burning Man.
No. 2: Mark Zuckerberg
Age: 28
Net Worth: $13.3 billion
Few CEOs of any age are under more media scrutiny than Zuckerberg (who’s only 8 days older than Moskovitz). Since taking Facebook public in May 2012, and getting married days later, the hoodie-wearing founder has seen his net worth rise and fall with every fluctuation of the stock price.
No. 3: Albert von Thurn und Taxis
Age: 29
Net Worth: $1.5 billion
Albert von Thurn und Taxis first appeared in Forbes’ billionaire rankings at age 8 but officially inherited his fortune in 2001 on his 18th birthday. The eligible bachelor is also a race car driver and tours with a German auto-racing league.
No. 4: Scott Duncan
Age: 30
Net Worth: $5.1 billion
Duncan is the youngest of the four children who inherited the massive fortune of late energy pipeline entrepreneur Dan Duncan, founder of Enterprise Products Partners. Today the company owns more than 50,000 miles of natural gas, oil, and petrochemical pipelines.
No. 5: Eduardo Saverin
Age: 30
Net Worth: $2.2 billion
Facebook co-founder Saverin renounced his United States citizenship in 2011, news of which broke days before the company’s IPO and drew accusations of tax evasion. Saverin, immortalized in The Social Network as Mark Zuckerberg’s onetime best friend, settled a lengthy legal battle with Facebook, apparently receiving a 5% stake. A Brazilian citizen, he now resides in Singapore and invests in startups.
No. 6: Huiyan Yang
Age: 31
Net Worth: $5.7 billion
Yang, the daughter of the founder of real estate developer Country Garden Holdings, is once again China’s richest woman. Her father transferred his stake to the Ohio State grad before the company’s IPO in 2007.
No. 7: Fahd Hariri
Age: 32
Net Worth: $1.35 billion
Hariri is the youngest son of slain Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. He graduated from the Ecole Spéciale d’Architecture de Paris in 2004. While still a student, he ran an interior design studio on the outskirts of the city, and sold furniture to clients in Saudi Arabia.
No. 8: Marie Besnier Beauvalot
Age: 32
Net Worth: $1.5 billion
Marie, along with siblings Emmanuel, 42, and Jean-Michel, 45, inherited French dairy giant Lactalis, producers of popular Président brie among hundreds of other cheese, milk and yogurt brands.
No. 9: Sean Parker
Age: 33
Net Worth: $2 billion
Parker is revamping his much hyped start-up, Airtime, with the hopes that the video chat site will have the impact of his other Web companies. At 19, Parker skipped college to disrupt the recording industry with music swapping site Napster. He served as Facebook’s first president at age 24.
No. 10: Ayman Hariri
Age: 34
Net Worth: $1.35 billion
Hariri is the son of slain Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. He’s involved in running Saudi Oger, one of Saudi Arabia’s biggest construction companies, and the source of the Hariri family fortune.
No. 11: Yvonne Bauer
Age: 35
Net Worth: $2.4 billion
Bauer owns 85% of her family’s publishing empire. She is the fifth generation of the family to run the Bauer Media Group, which was founded in 1875. It publishes 570 magazines in 16 countries.
No. 12: Yoshikazu Tanaka
Age: 36
Net Worth: $1.8 billion
Founder and CEO of social-network game site operator Gree, Tanaka has faced stiff competition this year from archrival DeNA and a game initiative by NTT DoCoMo, the giant cellphone carrier. To get back on track, Tanaka moved to partner with Yahoo Japan and went on a buying spree.
No. 13: Maxim Nogotkov
Age: 36
Net Worth: $1.3 billion
Nogotkov got his start selling computer programs while in school and later began selling cordless phones. He dropped out of college in order to have more time to focus on building his business. He later founded cell phone retailer Svyaznoy.
No. 14: Alejandro Santo Domingo Davila
Age: 36
Net Worth: $11.7 billion
A Harvard history grad, Domingo Davila is the eldest son from his jet-setting beer magnate father’s second marriage. Now a managing director at a New York-based investment advisory firm, Alejandro sits on the board of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.
No. 15: Jack Dorsey
Age: 36
Net Worth: $1.1 billion
Dorsey made a name for himself as a cofounder and leader of 160-character microblogging company Twitter, but most of his fortune is derived from his stake in mobile payment company Square. The New York University dropout is a certified masseur known for his eclectic interests, which include, among other things, punk music and clothes.
No. 16: Serra Sabanci
Age: 37
Net Worth: $1.3 billion
Sabanci is the daughter of Ozdemir Sabanci who was assassinated in 1996, and a board member of the large conglomerate Sabanci Holding.
No. 17: Nicholas Woodman
Age: 37
Net Worth: $1.3 billion
GoPro founder and CEO Nick Woodman built the first camera prototypes in his bedroom with his mom’s sewing machine and a drill. GoPro came out with its first camera, a 35-millimeter waterproof film version, in 2004. Today, the camera shoots full video in cinema quality HD, allowing anyone from professional surfer Kelly Slater to amateur snowboarders to capture their adventures.
No. 18: Chase Coleman
Age: 37
Net Worth: $1.4 billion
The hottest young money manager on the planet, Coleman cooled off a touch in 2012, but his Tiger Global hedge fund extended its impressive winning streak, finishing a third straight year with a net return in excess of 20%.
No. 19: Ryan Kavanaugh
Age: 38
Net Worth: $1 billion
Ryan Kavanaugh joins the billionaire ranks for the first time this year thanks to his movie studio, Relativity. Kavanaugh is making money by hitting singles and doubles like the recent Safe Haven, which cost $25 million to make and has grossed more than $50 million at the box office.
No. 20: Andrey Verevskiy
Age: 38
Net Worth: $1 billion
Verevskiy started trading in grain when he was 19 and founded Kernel Holding a decade later, growing it into Ukraine’s largest sunflower oil producer. Last year, Verevskiy was elected to Ukraine’s Parliament.
No. 21: John Arnold
Age: 38
Net Worth: $2.8 billion
Arnold shocked the hedge fund world in May 2012 when he announced he was calling it a career at age 38. Arnold and his wife Laura, who are signatories of the Giving Pledge, plan to devote much of their time to philanthropy. The couple have already given away more than $1.2 billion.
No. 22: Kostyantin Zhevago
Age: 39
Net Worth: $1.5 billion
Son of a mining engineer, Zhevago took over Poltava Iron Ore, the largest exporter of pellets in CIS, at the age of twenty two, and in 2007 he took his mining company Ferrexpo public. An avid soccer fan, Zhevago owns FC Vorska football.
No. 23: Fang Wei
Age: 39
Net Worth: $1.5 billion
Wei is best known for buying turnaround situations, especially those in the steel industry. Fangda Group now has more than 30,000 employees across more than 10 provinces in China.
