Bloomberg
By Elizabeth Ody

Carlos Slim Tops Forbes List of Billionaires for Second Year


Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim.

Carlos Slim remained the world’s richest person for a second year with estimated assets of $74 billion, 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, rose $20.5 billion. Bill Gates, 55, chairman of Redmond, Washington-based Microsoft Corp. (MSFT), was second again as his net worth rose $3 billion to $56 billion. Warren Buffett, 80, chief executive officer of Omaha, Nebraska-based Berkshire Hathaway Inc. (BRK/A), held on to third place with $50 billion.

There were a record number of billionaires in 2011, with 1,210 in total, compared with the previous high of 1,125 in 2008. Of the 214 newcomers this year, 54 were from China and 31 from Russia. 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. Moscow displaced New York as the city with the greatest number of billionaires with 79, compared with New York’s 58.

“The big global story is not the individuals so much as what’s happening with the so-called BRICs,â€