World's richest lose $11.3 bn, Mittal falls off index

The 20 richest people on Earth lost a combined $11.3 billion yesterday as global markets fell after European economic growth slowed and investors weighed Greece’s chances of getting bondholders to accept a debt swap.

Warren Buffett’s fortune fell $407.3 million, dropping his net worth to $43.9 billion. The chairman of Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire Hathaway Inc, his investment holding company, ranks third on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a daily ranking of the world’s richest people.

“Warren Buffett has no reason to worry and neither does Carlos Slim,” Jeffrey Saut, chief investment strategist at Raymond James Financial in St Petersburg, Florida, said in an interview. “It’s a buy. The world’s not going into recession.”

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index posted its worst drop of the year, sliding 1.5 per cent as US stocks declined for the third straight day. Europe’s economy shrank 0.3 per cent last quarter, the European Union’s statistics office said, and the central bank’s balance sheet surged to a record ^3.02 trillion ($3.96 trillion) last week amid crisis-fighting efforts.

Bernard Arnault and Amancio Ortega, two European retail magnates on the billionaires list, both lost about $1.2 billion. Arnault, 63, now ranks fifth on the index with a net worth of $41.2 billion after shares of his LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton (MC) SA, the world’s largest luxury goods company, dropped 3.1 per cent in Paris trading. Ortega, 75, who owns a 59 per cent stake in fashion retailer Inditex SA, the world’s largest clothing retailer, ranks seventh with a $37.7 billion fortune. No billionaire on the index gained.

Ferrero joins list
Lakshmi Mittal, chairman and chief executive officer of ArcelorMittal, the world’s largest steel company, fell from the ranking after his fortune dropped $918 million, or four per cent. Shares of ArcelorMittal declined 5.5 per cent in Amsterdam trading. Mittal, 61, is now the 21st-richest person in the world with a net worth of $22.3 billion.

Replacing him in the index is Italy’s Michele Ferrero, whose $22.5 billion fortune makes him the world’s 18th-richest person. Ferrero owns the world’s fourth-largest chocolate maker, Ferrero SpA.

The company’s products include Ferrero Rocher hazelnut chocolates and Nutella. His net worth is up 6.6 per cent this year.