Global billionaire list now totals 587, the longest ever

By Marcia Heroux Pounds
Business Writer
Posted February 27 2004

Many of the rich got richer this year. Rallying stocks and a strong euro swelled the Forbes magazine’s annual billionaires list to the longest it has ever been.

Forbes counted some 587 billionaires around the world, up from 476 in 2003. Their total net worth jumped to $1.9 trillion from the $1.4 trillion the magazine counted in 2003.

“After two years of significantly falling fortunes, we really saw an uptick for just about everybody on the list,” said Luisa Kroll, an associate editor at Forbes.

In the United States, billionaires likely gained last year not only from a 20 percent rise in stock prices but also from reductions in taxes on dividends, capital gains and estate taxes, according to Mark Zandi, chief economist at Economy.com.

New additions to the list were “Harry Potter” author J.K. Rowling and the founders of the Google search engine, Sergey Brin and Larry Page at $1 billion each.

Mainstay Bill Gates has an estimated net worth of $46.6 billion, still less than half the $100 billion it peaked at in 1998, but up about 13 percent from the $40.7 billion Forbes attributed to him in 2003.

But it is Warren Buffett who wins bragging rights for reaping the best gains of the year. He increased his net worth by $12.4 billion to $42.9 billion, significantly narrowing the gap between him and Gates, with whom he competes in bridge tournaments.

The richest person with ties to South Florida continues to be Metromedia mogul John Kluge, who owns a home in Palm Beach. Kluge, 89, dropped from a ranking of No. 17 to 26 on the list but his fortune remained intact at $10.5 billion.

Florida’s richest businessman continues to be Carnival Cruise Lines’ Micky Arison, a Bal Harbour resident. Arison, 54, moved up to No. 68 from 104 last year with $5.9 billion.

Fort Lauderdale’s claim to fame, H. Wayne Huizenga saw his fortune rise a mere million to $1.8 billion. That resulted in a slightly lower ranking, 310, for Huizenga, the 66-year-old owner of the Miami Dolphins and founder of AutoNation Inc.

But he outranked the other Broward County billionaire, auto importer James Moran, 85, who was ranked 406th with $1.4 billion. Moran founded J.M. Family Enterprises in Deerfield Beach.

Real estate magnate and new TV star Donald Trump, 58, moved up again this year to No. 205 with $2.5 billion. Trump, host of NBC’s The Apprentice, owns the Mar-A-Lago estate in Palm Beach.

After Trump, the pecking order in Palm Beach billionaires is Estee Lauder’s Ronald Lauder, 59, with $2 billion; Rich Product Corp.’s Robert Edward Rich, with $1.9 billion; Daniel S. Abraham, Slim-Fast, with $1.8 billion; Arthur L. Williams, 61, with $1.5 billion; George L. Lindemann and family, $1.2 billion; and Malcolm Glazer, 76, with $1.1 billion.

Older, married men dominated the list, which includes 53 women and 24 single people. The average billionaire’s age is 64, and only 27 are under 40.

German supermarket magnate Karl Albrecht remained in third place, with a fortune of $23 billion. Close behind were Saudi Arabia’s Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Alsaud, whose $21.5 billion nest egg put him just ahead of Microsoft’s other co-founder, Paul Allen, who came in fifth with $21 billion.

Rounding out the top 10 were Helen Walton, wife of the late Wal-Mart founder Sam Walton, and four members of her family. They were tied for fifth, with each worth an estimated $20 billion — making for a Walton mountain of money that’s bigger than the holdings of Gates and Buffett combined.

There were 56 billionaires who returned to the list after dropping off it in the previous few years, including Yahoo! founders David Filo ($2.2 billion) and Jerry Yang ($1.9 billion).

Newcomers to the list included the Canadian creator of Cirque du Soleil, Guy Laliberte ($1.1 billion), and Hong Kong’s Michael Ying ($1.8 billion), chief executive of clothing company Esprit Holdings Ltd.

This report was supplemented from wire services. Marcia Heroux Pounds can be reached at mpounds@sun-sentinel.com or 561-243-6650.