Buffett world's richest man - Forbes

Warren Buffett, the famed US investor who heads Berkshire Hathaway Inc., replaced his friend and Microsoft Corp founder Bill Gates as the richest man in the world, Forbes magazine said.

The magazine estimated Mr Buffett's worth at $62 billion in its annual ranking of the world's wealthiest people.

Mexican telecoms tycoon Carlos Slim came in second with an estimated worth of $60 billion, pushing Mr Gates to third place after 13 years of holding the No. 1 spot.

The magazine estimated Mr Gates's worth at $58 billion.

Mr Buffett's rise to No. 1 was particularly noteworthy, Forbes said, as it came at a time of great financial turmoil and as Mr Buffett has begun to siphon off part of his fortune to charity.

"Even though he is giving away a piece of his fortune each year, the stock of Berkshire Hathaway, the source of Warren Buffet's wealth, has been rising very rapidly," chief executive officer of Forbes Magazines Steve Forbes said, noting Mr Buffett's fortune climbed $10 billion in the last calendar year.

Mr Buffett in June 2006 announced plans to give 85 per cent of his fortune away, granting it to the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and four family charities. Bill Gates serves on the board of directors of Berkshire Hathaway and is a long-time bridge buddy of Mr Buffett's. Mr Gates has also given a substantial amount of his fortune to the foundation.

Mr Buffett, often called the Sage of Omaha, has been lauded among investors for his preference for investing in larger companies with easy-to-understand businesses, large or dominant market shares, consistent earnings, and strong management.

In the early 1960s, Mr Buffett started to invest in Berkshire, then a struggling textile maker, and took it over in 1965. Since then, he has transformed it into a holding company for more than 50 companies, ranging from Benjamin Moore paint and Dairy Queen ice cream to Fruit of the Loom underwear and Ginsu knives.

Mr Gates has held the No. 1 spot since 1995, when he unseated Yoshiaki Tsutsumi, a Japanese real estate tycoon. Mr Tsutsumi fell off the billionaire's list last year after receiving a suspended prison sentence for falsifying financial statements and insider trading in 2005.

Mr Slim, a former stock market trader, is known for buying up struggling, cheap firms and turning them into profitable cash cows. He built his fortune by privatising former Mexican state telephone monopoly Telmex. America Movil, a Telmex spin-off, is now Mr Slim's flagship business and Latin America's biggest mobile phone company.

The collective net worth of the world's 1,125 billionaires soared to $4.4 trillion, the magazine said.

The list of billionaires has almost doubled in the past four years, Forbes said. There were 469 US billionaires, worth a combined $1.6 trillion, while the 656 billionaires who live outside the US are worth $2.8 trillion.

Russia came in second place as home to 87 billionaires and Moscow is now the world's billionaire centre, the magazine said. The Russian capital is now home to more billionaires than New York City.