Amancio Ortega falls from Forbes 'top 10' billionaires list
Founder of Inditex drops from sixth to eleventh position in the ranking, headed by Bezos and Musk
BarcelonaSpanish businessman Amancio Ortega has slipped from sixth to eleventh place in the list of the world's richest people in the world, which is compiled annually by magazine Forbes, despite the fact that his wealth has increased from $55.1 billion to $77 billion in the last year. The founder of fashion group Inditex came to be the fourth richest person on the planet in 2017, with $71.3 billion, but fell back to sixth position a year later, where he had remained until now.
Ortega has been displaced on the Forbes list, among others, by Indian businessman Mukesh Ambani ($84.5 billion); the former president of Google's parent company, Alphabet, Sergey Brin ($89 billion), and the former CEO of the search engine, Larry Page ($91.5 billion).
The podium of the richest people in the world is still headed by Amazon founder Jeff Bezos, with a fortune of $177 billion, followed by the head of Tesla, Elon Musk ($151 billion). The South African has multiplied his wealth by six during the year of the pandemic thanks to the growth of the electric car firm in the stock market and the value of its investments in bitcoins.
More fortunes in the year of the pandemic
Despite the devastating effect of covid-19 on the global economy, the famous annual listing added new billionaires in 2020: the publication collects 2,755 fortunes, 600 more than in the previous edition. The group of billionaires listed by the magazine has a combined wealth of $13.1 trillion, up from $8 trillion last year. In fact, 86% of them have improved their financial status.
"A new billionaire was consolidated every 17 hours on average last year. All together, the world's richest people are $5 trillion richer than they were a year ago," the publication notes. The first woman on the Forbes list does not appear until position number 17 and it is Alice Walton, the heiress of Walmart founder Sam Walton.
Despite having lost positions, Amancio Ortega is still the second richest person in Europe behind Frenchman Bernard Arnault, president of the luxury giant LVMH, who with $150 billion dollars occupies the number three position in the ranking. In total, and as last year, the Forbes list included 29 Spaniards among the world's top fortunes. Amancio Ortega's daughter, Sandra Ortega Mera, repeats as the second richest Spaniard, with a fortune estimated at $7.3 billion dollars, $400 million more than last year, and is placed 344th on the Forbes list.
After Ortega's heiress come the president of the supermarket chain Mercadona, Juan Roig ($4.2 billion); the president of Ferrovial, Rafael del Pino ($3.9 billion); the president of Airtel, Juan Abelló ($2.9 billion), and businesswoman Alicia Koplowitz ($2.8 billion).
