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World has 1.210 billionaires; Mexico’s Carlos Slim remains the richest person

Carlos Slim with multiple investments in telecommunications, retail, banking, construction, oil exploration is worth 71 billion USD says Forbes

Mexico’s Carlos Slim remains the world’s richest person for a second year with estimated assets of 74 billion US dollars, according to Forbes magazine’s annual global ranking of billionaires.

The net worth of Mexico’s Slim, 71, whose holdings include the largest mobile phone operator in the Americas, jumped 20.5 billion USD. Bill Gates, 55, chairman of Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft Corp, was second again as his net worth rose 3 billion to 56 billion USD. Warren Buffett, 80, chief executive officer of Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire Hathaway Inc, held on to third place with 50 billion USD.

“It wasn’t even close this year,” said Forbes Media Editor-in-Chief Steve Forbes. Slim’s net worth gained the most of any billionaire compared with 2010, Forbes said.

Mark Zuckerberg, the 26-year-old cofounder and chief executive officer of social-networking website Facebook Inc. jumped to 52nd this year from 212th place last year. There were a record number of billionaires in 2011, with 1,210 total compared with the previous high of 1,125 in 2008, and there were 214 newcomers in 2011, with 54 from China and 31 from Russia.

Slim’s America Movil SAB is the biggest mobile-phone company in the Americas, with 225 million wireless subscribers. The company also controls Mexico’s largest landline phone carrier, Telefonos de Mexico SAB, and the largest TV and long- distance operators in Brazil, as well as phone and video carriers in Colombia, Peru and other South American countries.

His holdings in Mexico extend from retail, with the Sanborns department store chain, to banking and construction. He holds stakes in U.S. companies including the Nwew York Times Co., Saks Inc. and Bronco Drilling Co. Slim’s gains in 2010 included his bank Grupo Financiero Inbursa SAB, which surged 42% as it expanded its branches, and Grupo Carso SAB, which almost doubled as it prepared for spin-offs of its mining and real- estate units.

Of the 1,210 billionaires on this year’s list, 648 saw their net worth increase and 160 saw their net worth decrease. Among the newcomers was Mark Pincus, founder of San Francisco- based Zynga Inc., creator of FarmVille. The average net worth of the billionaires was 3.7 billion, up from 3.5 billion USD in 2010.

The 4.5 trillion USD held by billionaires on the Forbes list represents about 2.3% of the world’s wealth. The Credit Suisse Research Institute, based in Zurich, estimated the world’s households had about 195 trillion USD in assets last year.

No one region dominated the rankings. The U.S. had the greatest representation, with 34%, followed by the Asia- Pacific region with 27%.

The wealthiest Brazilian, Eike Batista, 53, remained at eighth in 2011 as his net worth grew 3 billion to 30 billion USD. Batista has interests in multiple natural resources companies including Rio de Janiero-based OGX Petroleo & Gas Participacoes SA.

Moscow displaced New York as the city with the greatest number of billionaires with 79, compared with New York’s 58. The Asia-Pacific region had more billionaires than Europe for the first time in more than 10 years and gained the most billionaires of any region, with 105 newcomers.