Forbes Billionaires List 2006
451. Lucio Tan P87billion ($1.7B)
512. Henry Sy P77billion ($1.5B)
606. Jaime Zobel de Ayala P1.3Billion ($66B)
The Top 10
1. William Gates $50 Billion
2. Warren Buffett $42 Billion
3. Carlos Slim Helú
4. Ingvar Kamprad
5. Lakshmi Mittal
6. Paul Allen
7. Bernard Arnault
8. Prince Alwaleed
9. Kenneth Thomson
10. Li Ka-shing
Three Filipino businessmen whose names are synonymous with airlines, shopping malls, beer, banking and telecomunications remained in Forbes' annual list of the world's billionaires released Friday.
Lucio Tan, who made his fortune from beer, cigarettes and airlines, ranked 451 of the 793 billionaires listed in the annual list. Tan is the owner of Asia Breweries and the country's flag carrier Philippines Airlines. Forbes estimated Tan's net worth at $1.7 billion (approximately P87.38 billion)
Henry Sy, the country's king of shopping malls, ranked 512 at an estimated net worth of $1.5 billion (approximately P77.1 billion). Aside from owning 23 shopping malls, Sy's family also has stakes in local banks and real estate.
Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala ranked 606 in the list with an estimated net worth of $1.3 billion (approximately P66.82 billion). The businessman runs Ayala Corp., the oldest and largest conglomerate in the Philippines, which has interests in real estate, water and telecommunications, among other industries.
Combined net worth of the three businessmen is $4.5 billion.
Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates topped the list for a record 12th year in a row with a net worth estimated at $50 billion, followed by perennial No. 2 Warren Buffett, the famed investor of Berkshire Hathaway, worth $42 billion.
Forbes said the number of billionaires grew by 15 percent last year with a rising number in India, Russia, Brazil and the Middle East as well as more women.
Soaring stock, oil and commodities prices increased their combined net worth to $2.6 trillion as 114 individuals joined the exclusive club, including 10 more women for a total of 78.
Mexican industrialist Carlos Slim moved into the No. 3 spot at $30 billion, just ahead of Sweden's Ikea founder, Ingvar Kamprad, at $28 billion.
Moving into the top 10 are French luxury goods mogul Bernard Arnault at No. 7, Canadian publishing magnate Kenneth Thomson and family, and Li Ka-shing, head of the Hong Kong conglomerate Hutchison Whampoa.
"Why is this list growing? The global economy has been growing the last two years at rates not seen since World War II, fueled by a commodities boom with a whiff of inflation," said Forbes Chief Executive and Editor-in-Chief Steve Forbes.
The list is a source of great speculation and criticism each year, with some of those named laughing off the estimates of their net worth as wildly low or high.
India added 10 names to the list for a total of 23, but only three of them based on software or technology. Their combined net worth of $99 billion passed the net worth of Japan's 27 billionaires, estimated at $67 billion, for the largest concentration in Asia.
Russian added seven new members to the list for a total of 33, based largely on oil and gas prices, and that list's net worth grew to $172 billion, up from $91 billion a year ago.
"Russia continues to astound us," Kroll said.
One Russian oil tycoon who fell off the list was Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the former YUKOS chief executive imprisoned in Siberia for fraud and tax evasion.
"We figure he still has somewhere below $500 million," Kroll said.
Brazil doubled its number of billionaires to 16 with the help of some massive public offerings.
In the Middle East and Africa, including Turkey, there were 56 billionaires, up from 29 last year, with a combined worth of $167 billion, up from $103 billion a year ago.
Turkey added eight new people to the list for a total of 21, based largely on telecommunications, media and banking.
Great concentration of wealth occurred in oil-rich Saudi Arabia, whose 11 billionaires were worth $68 billion compared to $42 billion for its seven billionaires a year ago.
The Middle East also produced the overall list's youngest billionaire, Hind Hariri, 22, who inherited $1.4 billion from her slain father, the former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik al-Hariri.
http://www.forbes.com/lists/2006/10/Rank_1.html
Forbes Billionaires List 2006
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