Dangote loses billions of Dollars, Drops on Forbes list

The President of the Dangote Group, Aliko
Dangote, retained his position as Africa’s richest
man on the 2015 Forbes billionaires’ list, despite
the loss of $10.3bn of his fortune
The list, which was released on Monday, also
include four other Nigerians, Chief Mike Adenuga,
Mrs. Folorunsho Alakija, Mr. Femi Otedola and
Mr. Abdulsamad Rabiu.
Otedola returned to Forbes’ list of billionaires for
the first time since 2009 following a sharp rise in
the share price of his petroleum marketing
company Forte Oil Plc, despite the drop in oil
prices in 2014.
He was briefly featured on the list in 2009 but
dropped out of the rankings shortly afterwards
when the shares of his African Petroleum Plc
(now Forte Oil) plunged by more than 80 per
cent.
Dangote, who currently ranks 67th from 23rd in
2014, saw his fortune dropped to $14.7bn from
$25bn last year, propelled downward by a
weaker naira and shrinking demand for cement,
his largest asset, according to Forbes.
Despite dropping by 44 places in the world
ranking, Dangote still retains the title of Africa’s
richest man.
Adenuga ranked 393, with a net worth of $4.2bn,
down from 325 in 2014 when his net worth was
calculated at $4.6bn.
Alakija dropped to the 949th position with a net
worth of $2bn, from 687th on the billionaires’ list
last year when she was worth $2.5bn.
Otedola and Rabiu were ranked 1,741 and 1,372,
with net worth of $1bn each. While Otedola
moved up, Rabiu lost $200m in the space of 12
months, according to Forbes.
According to Forbes, 138 people from the 2014
list dropped out of the ranking altogether,
including fashion designer, Michael Kors;
Ukrainian President, Petro Poroshenko; Zulily’s
Mark Vadon; and many Russians.
The rank of the world’s wealthiest expanded to a
record 1,826 this year, with an aggregate net
worth of $7.05tn, up from $6.4tn a year ago.
The total includes 290 newcomers, 71 of who
hail from China.
A record 46 among the billionaires are under age
40. One earthward note: The average net worth
of list members came in at $3.86bn, down $60m
from 2014.
Bill Gates is once again the richest person on the
planet, a title he has held for 16 of the past 21
years. His fortune grew by $3.2bn since last year
to $79.2bn, despite a gift of $1.5bn in Microsoft
shares to The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation in
November 2014.
Carlos Slim Helu of Mexico comes in again at
number two, while revered American investor,
Warren Buffett, took back the No. 3 spot from
Spain’s Amancio Ortega.

Source: Punch