Five Irish citizens on 'Forbes' list

There are five Irish citizens on the Forbes list of the world's wealthiest people, which is headed by Mexico's Carlos Slim, who has a fortune of $74 billion.

The richest Irish citizen is Pallonji Mistry (81), who has a fortune of $8.8 billion, the 103rd largest in the world. He is based in Mumbai but holds an Irish passport due to the Irish citizenship of his wife and sons.

He chairs the 142-year old Shapoorji Pallonji Group which built The Imperial, a pair of 60-storey residential towers in Mumbai. Mr Mistry’s biggest asset is his 18.4 per cent stake in Tata Sons, holding company of Tata Group which owns Corus Steel in the UK and brands such as Jaguar, Land Rover and Tetley Tea.

Telecoms tycoon Denis O'Brien (52) is worth $4.2 billion, according to Forbes, making him the 254th richest person in the world. His address is listed by Forbes as Dublin. His Digicel company operates in dozens of Caribbean and Pacific islands. Mr O'Brien's other holdings include Communicorp, which owns 42 radio stations across Europe, including Today FM, Dublin's 98, Newstalk, Spin 1038 and Spin South West in Ireland.

John Dorrance III (67) the US-born heir of the Campbell Soup empire has a fortune of $2.4 billion. Mr Dorrance, the 488th richest person in the world, lives in Dublin. He sold off much of his 10.5 per cent stake in Campbell Soup for $1.5 billion in the mid-1990s. He renounced US citizenship and moved to Ireland before the sale.

Martin Naughton (71) founded Glen Electric in 1973 and acquired Dimplex four years later. He became sole owner of Glen Dimplex in 2003 and has an estimated wealth of $1.9 billion, putting him at number 651 on the Forbes list.

Financier Dermot Desmond (60) has a net worth of $1.6 billion, according to Forbes. He features at 782 on the list. He founded NCB Stockbrokers in 1981, selling it in 1994 and putting the proceeds into private equity firm, International Investment & Underwriting. He was also instrumental in establishing the IFSC in Dublin. He sold London City Airport in 2006, but still owns international betting exchange Betdaq, online education outfit Intuition and mapping software company eSpatial. He also holds large stakes in Barbados' Sandy Lane Hotel and Glasgow Celtic FC.

Insurance magnate Seán Quinn, who was estimated to be worth $2.3 billion in last year’s list, is out of the ratings completely. Independent News Media (INM) chief Sir Anthony O’Reilly dropped off the list in 2009.

The world's richest man, Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim, retained his crown for the second year in a row and made more money than any of the other 1,209 billionaires in the past year: $20.5 billion, taking his fortune to $74 billion.

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates held on to second place, growing his wealth to $56 billion from $53 billion last year, and investor Warren Buffett again came in third with $50 billion, up from $47 billion.

China nearly doubled its number of billionaires to 115, while Russia and Brazil posted two-third jumps to 101 and 30 respectively.  It was the first time any country outside the United States, which has 413 billionaires, had more than 100. Moscow has 79 billionaires, easily outstripping New York, which has just 58.

Russia's billionaire growth was attributed to a commodities boom. Brazil also benefited from higher commodity prices, as well as stricter disclosure rules and a stronger currency. In China and India, which has 55 billionaires after adding six, strong economies helped create wealth from a range of sectors.

"The bottom line is BRICs, commodities and Asia Pacific," Forbes chief executive Steve Forbes told a news conference. "There is a global commodities boom. But as we should have learned ... commodities can go up very sharply, they can go down very sharply."

Brazil, Russia, India and China produced half the world's 214 new billionaires, double last year's 97 newcomers.

Among the new entrants in the Forbes list are four billionaires whose fortunes are tied to social networking site Facebook - co-founders Dustin Moskovitz and Eduardo Saverin and investors Yuri Milner and Sean Parker. They join Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg.

Mr Zuckerberg, who soared to number 52 from 212 and now has an estimated worth of $13.5 billion, and Facebook investor Peter Thiel, who was also previously on the list.

One of the biggest movers up the list was US casino magnate Sheldon Adelson, who posted the biggest increase in wealth behind Mr Slim. He is worth $23.3 billion, up from $14 billion, and soared to number 16 from number 73 last year in a remarkable turnaround for a businessman whose Las Vegas Sands Corp came close to defaulting on its debt in 2008.

While India's number of billionaires did not increase much, their "average net worth ... is huge - $4.5 billion for an Indian billionaire versus $2.5 billion for a Chinese billionaire," said Forbes.

Russia is also trumping China with 15 billionaires in the top 100, compared to China's one, while India has seven and Brazil three.

Forbes said Mr Gates would have still been the richest man in the world if he had not so far given $28 billion of his wealth to his foundation. He was only knocked off the top spot on the list twice between 1995 and 2010.

The wealth of the world's billionaires jumped 25 per cent to $4.5 trillion and their average net worth rose to $3.7 billion from $3.5 billion. There were 47 people who dropped off the list, 42 who returned and 10 people who died. The number of women grew to 102 from 89 last year.

Additional reporting: Reuters