New York: American business magnate Warren Buffett made a fortune of about USD 37 million per day in 2013, according to Wealth-X, making him the billionaire who made the most money this year.
With a gain of USD 12.7 billion in 2013, Buffett's net worth at the end of the year stands at USD 59.1 billion. The notable philanthropist had a fortune of USD 46.4 billion at the beginning of the year. However, Buffett is not the wealthiest billionaire on the top 10 list prepared by Wealth-X.
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates added USD 11.5 billion to his personal fortune in 2013, ending the year with assets totalling USD 72.6 billion. Gates is also the richest person on the list.
According to the report, the top 10 individuals collectively gained USD 101.8 billion in 2013, an average gain of USD 10.2 billion each.
The combined wealth of these individuals stand at USD 347 billion in December this year, up from USD 245 billion in January 2013.
Besides, on an average, they made USD 29 million per day in 2013 and increased their wealth by 41.6 per cent, outperforming the 24 per cent returns seen in the S&P 500 this year.
Gates is followed by casino mogul Sheldon Adelson at the third spot, who raked in USD 11.4 billion in 2013 from his various properties in Las Vegas, Macau and Singapore. His personal net worth is estimated to be more than USD 35 billion in December from USD 23.9 billion in January.
Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos became richer by USD 11.3 billion to take his total fortune to USD 34.4 billion.
Besides, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg gained USD 10.5 billion taking his wealth to USD 24.7 billion. The report said that Masayoshi Son, head of SoftBank Corp, added USD 10.3 billion to his fortune.
Google's founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin have added USD 9.3 billion each to their personal wealth.
Brin's net worth stood at USD 30 billion, while that of Page was at USD 29.9 billion.
Hong Kong's business tycoon Lui Chee Woo made a fortune of USD 8.3 billion in 2013, while private equity investor Carl Icahn gained USD 7.3 billion in the year. As per the report, the valuations are for the period between January 1 to December 11, 2013.
