Saudi prince's fortune rises to $19.6bn in new Forbes rich list

Saudi Arabia's Prince Alwaleed bin Talal has been ranked 26th on Forbes magazine's annual global ranking of billionaires, with a fortune estimated at $19.6bn.

The Saudi billionaire was ranked the wealthiest in the Middle East but even his fortune was dwarfed by Mexico's Carlos Slim, who topped the chart for the second year running with assets valued at $74bn.

The net worth of Slim, 71, whose holdings include the largest mobile phone operator in the Americas, rose $20.5bn, according to Forbes.

Alwaleed is the largest individual shareholder in Citigroup. His Saudi-listed Kingdom Holding also owns 40 percent of a company that plans to build world's tallest building in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

His Alwaleed bin Talal Foundation funds a wide range of charitable causes, including aid to flood victims in Jeddah and an Islamic studies program at Harvard.

Although Forbes increased his fortune from $19.4bn in 2010, he fell seven places in this year's ranking.

The second highest ranked Middle East businessman was Mohammed Al Amoudi whose $12.3bn was good enough to give him 63rd place in the list.

The son of Saudi father and Ethiopian mother, Al Amoudi started investing in Sweden in the 1970s. His construction company Midroc scored contract to build Saudi Arabia's nationwide underground oil storage complex in 1988.

He also owns a gold mine in Ethiopia, oil refineries in Morocco and Sweden, oil fields off west Africa, while his Addis Ababa Sheraton is said to be among the finest hotels in Africa.

The other Middle East entry in the top 100 billionaires, according to Forbes, was Kuwait's Nasser Al-Kharafi & family who were ranked at 77 with a fortune of $10.4bn.

Al-Kharafi is chairman of MAK Group, a pillar of the Kuwaiti economy, with interests in banking, manufacturing, construction, and food.

Behind Carlos Slim, Bill Gates, chairman of the Microsoft Corp came second again as his net worth rose $3bn to $56bn.

Warren Buffett, chief executive officer of Berkshire Hathaway, held on to third place with $50bn.

One of the most notable climbers this year was Mark Zuckerberg, the co-founder and chief executive officer of social networking website Facebook.

He jumped to 52nd this year from 212th place last year.

There were a record number of billionaires in 2011, with 1,210 total, compared with the previous high of 1,125 in 2008, and there were 214 newcomers in 2011, with 54 from China and 31 from Russia.

Of the 1,210 billionaires on this year’s list, 648 saw their net worth increase and 160 saw their net worth decrease.

The $4.5 trillion held by billionaires on the Forbes list represents about 2.3 percent of the world’s wealth.