Buffett added $37 mn daily to his fortune in 2013: report
19 Dec 2013
Maverick US investor Warren Buffett is estimated to have added an average $37 million to his fortune in 2013, making him the billionaire who made the most money this year, according to Wealth-X.
Buffett is expected to close the year 2013 with a net worth of $59.1 billion, against a fortune of $46.4 billion at the beginning of the year, a net gain of $12.7 billion since December last year.
Notably, Buffett is not the wealthiest billionaire on the top 10 list prepared by Wealth-X.
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates with assets totalling $72.6 billion, also the richest person on the list, added $11.5 billion to his personal fortune in 2013.
Gates is followed by casino mogul Sheldon Adelson, who raked in $11.4 billion in 2013 from his various properties in Las Vegas, Macau and Singapore, at the third spot. His personal net worth is estimated to be more than $35 billion in December from $23.9 billion in January.
Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos added $11.3 billion to his wealth taking his total fortune to $34.4 billion.
Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg gained $10.5 billion taking his wealth to $24.7 billion.
Masayoshi Son, head of SoftBank Corp, added $10.3 billion to his fortune.
Google's founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin have added $9.3 billion each to their personal wealth. Brin's net worth stood at $30 billion, while that of Page was at $29.9 billion.
Hong Kong's business tycoon Lui Chee Woo made a fortune of $8.3 billion in 2013, while private equity investor Carl Icahn gained $7.3 billion during the year.
The top ten wealthiest persons together added $101.8 billion to their collective wealth of $347 billion in 2013, an average gain of $10.2 billion, according to the report.
The combined wealth of these individuals stood at $245 billion at the end of December 2012.
The top 10 wealthiest individuals, on an average, made $29 million per day in 2013 and increased their wealth by 41.6 per cent, outperforming the 24 per cent returns seen in the S&P 500 this year.
Wealth-X said the valuations are based on estimates for the period between 1 January and 11 December 2013.