Buffett, Ortega
Gates recaptured the title of world’s richest person on May 16 from Mexican investor Carlos Slim. Gates’s fortune also includes stakes in Canadian National Railway Co., sanitizing- products maker Ecolab Inc. and Republic Services Inc.
Slim, 74, has a $63.5 billion fortune and is the biggest dollar loser so far this year. His net worth has fallen $10.2 billion year-to-date.
Warren Buffett, the world’s third-richest person, assured shareholders of Berkshire Hathaway Inc. that he has plenty of ways to deploy cash after posting record earnings in 2013.
In his annual letter to investors, posted March 1, Buffett highlighted how Berkshire’s energy unit will seek another takeover after its $5.6 billion acquisition of NV Energy Inc., and explained why a $12.3 billion investment to help take HJ Heinz Co. private was a template for future deals. The Berkshire chairman also discussed subsidiaries’ appetite to spend billions of dollars on smaller transactions, as well as equipment and plants.
“Though we invest abroad as well, the mother lode of opportunity resides in America,” Buffett, 83, wrote in the letter, referring to his company’s capital spending, which climbed to a record $11.1 billion last year.
Amancio Ortega is No. 4 on the ranking. The 77-year-old co- founder of Inditex SA, the world’s largest clothing retailer, has a net worth of $57.7 billion, down $8.7 billion for the year.