Financial News and World Richest People Boh Tong Blog.

World's billionaires 2011

2011-09-24T16:04:00.001+08:00

Click http://www.forbes.com/wealth/billionaires/list

The Secret Riches Visualization Tool

2009-03-16T09:00:00.000+08:00

Riches people (1st quarter 2009)

2009-03-16T07:53:00.000+08:00

No. Name Net worth (USD) Age Citizenship Residence Sources of wealth Ref.

1▲ Bill Gates $40.0 billion ▼ 53 United States United States Microsoft

2▼ Warren Buffett $37.0 billion ▼ 78 United States United States Berkshire Hathaway

3▼ Carlos Slim Helú $35.0 billion ▼ 69 Mexico Mexico Telmex, América Móvil

4▲ Lawrence Ellison $22.5 billion ▼ 64 United States United States Oracle Corporation

5▲ Ingvar Kamprad $22.0 billion ▼ 82 Sweden Switzerland IKEA

6▲ Karl Albrecht $21.5 billion ▼ 89 Germany Germany Aldi Süd

7▼ Mukesh Ambani $19.5 billion ▼ 51 India India Reliance Industries

8▼ Lakshmi Mittal $19.3 billion ▼ 58 India United Kingdom Arcelor Mittal

9▲ Theo Albrecht $18.8 billion ▼ 86 Germany Germany ALDI Nord, Trader Joe's

10▲ Amancio Ortega $18.3 billion ▼ 73 Spain Spain Inditex Group
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Legend

Icon Description
▬ Has not changed from the list for 2008.
▲ Has increased from the list for 2008.
▼ Has decreased from the list for 2008.
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2008 Top 10 Richest Men in The World YouTube.

2008-12-08T09:57:00.000+08:00

Top 10 Richest Person in the World - 2008

2008-12-08T09:44:00.000+08:00

1) The American investor and philanthropist Warren Buffet is worth an estimated $62 billion, up $10 billion from a year ago thanks to surging prices of Berkshire Hathaway stock, according to Forbes magazine's annual ranking of the world's billionaires.
2) Mexican telecom tycoon Carlos Slim Helu was named the world's second richest man, with a net worth of around $60 billion, up $11 billion since last March.
3) Bill Gates, the co-founder of Microsoft, is now ranked as the world's third richest person. At $58 billion, his net worth is up $2 billion from a year ago.
4) Steel giant Lakshmi Mittal placed fourth with 45 billion dollars.
5) Petrochemicals tycoon Mukesh Ambani placed fifth with 43 billion dollars
6) Anil Ambani at sixth position with 42 billion dollars.
7) Ikea store chain owner Ingvar Kamprad was seventh at $31 billion.
8) Property magnate K.P. Singh came in eighth on the list, with a fortune estimated at 30 billion dollars.
9) Aluminum giant Oleg Deripaska was ninth at $28 billion
10) Aldi store chain owner Karl Albrecht was 10th at $27 billion

12 Richest People in the World (2008)

2008-05-15T16:23:00.000+08:00

11)Li Ka-shing

10 richest people in Singapore and Malaysia

2008-04-23T20:20:00.000+08:00

Check this out - the 40 richest Singaporeans are collectively worth US$32 billion according to the latest list by Forbes. Topping the list is property magnate Ng Teng Fong, who owns Far East Organization and beverage maker Yeo Hiap Seng.

1. Ng Teng Fong - US$6.7 billion
2. Khoo family - US$5.7 billion
3. Wee Cho Yaw & family - US$3.3 billion
4. Zhong Sheng Jian - US$2.5 billion
5. Kwek Leng Beng & family - US$1.1 billion
6. Kuok Khoon Hong - US$960 million
7. Peter Lim - US$830 million
8. Lee Seng Wee - US$650 million
9. Denis Jen - US$600 million
10. Chew Hua Seng - US$595 million

Compare this list with the top 10 richest in Malaysia:

1. Robert Kuok - US$7.6 billion
2. Ananda Krishnan - US$7.2 billion
3. Lim Goh Tong - US$4.3 billion
4. Lee Shin Cheng - US$3.9 billion
5. Teh Hong Piow - US$3.5 billion
6. Quek Leng Chan - US$3 billion
7. Syed Mokhtar Al Bukhary - US$2 billion
8. Yeoh Tiong Lay - US$1.8 billion
9. Tiong Hiew King - US$1.2 billion
10. William Cheng - US$650 million

10 richest in China

2008-04-23T20:15:00.000+08:00

Rank
Name
Age
Net worth
Company

1
Larry Rong Zhijian
63 yrs
$1.64 billion
CITIC Pacific Group

2
Zhu Mengyi
46 yrs
$1.43 billion
Hopson Development, Guangdong Zhujiang Invest

3
William Ding Lei
34 yrs
$1.27 billion
Netease.com

4
Wong Kwong Yu
36 yrs
1.25 billion
Gome Appliances

5
Liu Yongxing
57 yrs
1.16 billion
East Hope Group

6
Liu Yonghao
54 yrs
1.12 billion
New Hope Group

7
Guo Guangchang
38 yrs
1.09 billion
Fosun High-Tech Group

8
Xu Ming
34 yrs
1.05 billion
Shide Group

9
Xu Rongmao
55 yrs
1.00 billion
Shimao Group

10
Chen Tianqiao
32 yrs
1.00 billion
Shanda Interactive Entertainment

Calos Slim the richest person

2007-08-18T12:10:00.000+08:00

World's richest person
On the 29th March 2007, Carlos Slim Helú surpassed Warren Buffett as the world's second richest person with an estimated Net Worth of US$53.1 billion compared to Buffett's US$52.4 billion.

There have been conflicting reports from the Mexican online financial publication, Sentido Común, that Carlos has indeed surpassed Microsoft's Bill Gates as the world's richest person with an alleged net worth of $67.8 billion, $8.6 billion higher than Bill Gates. Forbes however maintains that Carlos Slim Helú is still placed second to Bill Gates as of its last calculation billionaire fortunes. Forbes does not plan to recalculate Carlos Slim Helú's wealth until next year.

On 4th August 2007, The Wall Street Journal ran a cover story profiling Slim. The article said, "While the market value of his stake in publicly traded companies could decline at any time, at the moment he is probably wealthier than Bill Gates".[3] On 8th August 2007, Fortune magazine also reported that Carlos Slim had overtaken Bill Gates as the world's richest man. Carlos Slim's estimated fortune soared to US$59 billion, based on the value of his public holdings at the end of July. Microsoft founder Bill Gates' net worth was estimated to be at least US$58 billion.
Source: Wikipedia

Ingvar Kamprad

2007-07-26T15:28:00.000+08:00

Ingvar Kamprad is the fourth richest man in the world and he is the founder of furniture store,Ikea.

Although a very wealthy man,he flies economy class,drives an old Volvo and seldom wears a suit. He is a Swede and his luxuries are occasionally buying a nice cravat and eating Swedish fish roe.

His company Ikea now has stores in thirty-three countries, while continuing to expand markets in China and Russia.

Kamprad believes in thrift and modesty and obviously appreciates what it takes to earn his money and realizes that there are no guarantees to economic success tomorrow apart from hard work. As Benjamin Franklin said: "A penny saved is a penny earned."

IKEA is an acronym comprising the initials of the founder's name, Ingvar Kamprad, and home village, Elmtaryd, Agunnaryd.

One of China's richest says his money is "clean"

2007-06-26T19:17:00.000+08:00

BEIJING, Nov. 8 (Xinhuanet) -- Du Sha, one of China's richest people according to a new Forbes ranking, claimed Thursday all his money is "clean" amid public concern over how China's richest get their wealth.

Du, who, with assets of 530 million US dollars, ranks eighth onForbes Global's annual list of China's richest people, sees the list as an affirmation to Chinese private businesses' success, claiming that "not all the wealth of private business is dirty." Click here to continue

India's Richest Man Building 60 Storey Home

2007-06-15T18:38:00.000+08:00

Mukesh Ambani,India's richest man is building a 60 storey palace for his family of six,in Mumbai. He would employ 600 staff to look after his new palace.
He is also building a six storey of carparking space,a helipad and a health club.
The palace is estimated to be worth US$1 billion.

Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Group is India's largest private company, with interests in oil, retail and biotechnology. The 50-year-old became the country's first rupee trillionaire this week and is worth around US$25 billion.

Warren Buffett,World's 2nd Richest Man Interview

2007-06-10T23:12:00.000+08:00

The World's Third Richest Man is Lakshmi Mittal

2007-05-30T17:35:00.000+08:00

Lakshmi Mittal is the world's 3rd richest with a worth of US$35 billion. Born in India and now lives in Britian, Lakshmi Mittal is the Chairman and CEO of Mittal Steel Company.
Mittal pioneered the development of integrated mini-mills and the use of Direct Reduced Iron or “DRI” as a scrap substitute for steelmaking and led the consolidation process of the global steel industry. Mittal Steel is the largest steelmaker in the world, with shipments of 42 million tons of steel and profits of over $22 billion in 2004.
He is the richest person in UK.In 2003 he paid $128 million for his house in Kensington. It was the most expensive house ever purchased.
In 2004,he spent $55 million on his daughter's wedding celebration in Versailles.

Rich Bankers of Singapore.

2007-05-18T08:28:00.000+08:00

Wee Cho Yaw: Former Chairman of UOB
The Late Khoo Teck Puat:Big Shareholder of Standard Chartered

The late Tan Chin Tuan: Former Chairman of OCBC

Li Ka-shing,World Richest Chinese.

2007-05-16T09:33:00.000+08:00

#9th Richest by Forbes: Li Ka-shing (2007)

Courtesy of Hutchison Whampoa
Age: 78

Fortune: self made

Source: diversified

Net Worth: $23.0 bil

Country Of Citizenship: Hong Kong

Residence: Hong Kong , Hong Kong, Asia & Australia

Industry: Diversified

Marital Status: widowed, 2 children

Education: High School, Drop Out

Asia's richest resident. His fortune is centered on conglomerates Cheung Kong and Hutchison Whampoa. Through them Li is the world's largest operator of container terminals, a major supplier of electricity to Hong Kong, a cell phone provider, retailer and real estate developer. Also has a nearly $10 billion stake in Canadian oil company Husky Energy. Recently announced plans to donate one-third of wealth over time, calling it "his third son." Eldest son, Victor, helps run massive empire; son Richard struck out on his own in early 1990s. Once a poor immigrant, Li got his start selling plastic flowers in Hong Kong in the 1950s. Source:Forbes.

Li Ka-shing was born in Chaozhou in the Guangdong Province, China in 1928. In 1940 the Li family fled to Hong Kong to avoid the turmoils in China.[5] Li's family stayed at the home of his wealthy uncle. The arrogance of Li's uncle with his immense wealth ignited Li's determination to make a place for himself in the world.

Li's father suffered from tuberculosis and died in Hong Kong. Shouldering the responsibility of looking after the livelihood of the family, Li was forced to leave school before the age of 15 and found a job in a plastics trading company where he labored 16 hours a day. By 1950, his hard work, prudence and his pursuit of excellence had enabled him to start his own company, Cheung Kong Industries. From manufacturing plastics, Li led and developed his company into a leading real estate investment company in Hong Kong that was listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange in 1972. Cheung Kong continued to expand by acquiring Hutchison Whampoa and Hongkong Electric Holdings Limited in 1979 and 1985 respectively
Source: Wikipedia.

Self made billionaires.

2007-05-09T11:10:00.000+08:00

George Soros (pronounced [ʃoroʃ]) [Shorosh] (born August 12, 1930, in Budapest, Hungary, as György Schwartz) is an American financial speculator, stock investor, philanthropist, and political activist.

Currently, he is the chairman of Soros Fund Management and the Open Society Institute and is also a former member of the Board of Directors of the Council on Foreign Relations. His support for the Solidarity labor movement in Poland, as well as the Czechoslovakian human rights organization Charter 77, contributed to ending Soviet Union political dominance in those countries.His funding and organization of Georgia's Rose Revolution was considered by Russian and Western observers to have been crucial to its success, although Soros said his role has been "greatly exaggerated." In the United States, he is known for having donated large sums of money in a failed effort to defeat President George W. Bush's bid for reelection in 2004.

Soros is famously known for "breaking the Bank of England" on Black Wednesday in 1992. With an estimated current net worth of around $8.5 billion, he is ranked by Forbes as the 80th-richest person in the

BORN: Oct. 6, 1923, in Johor Baru, Malaya
EDUCATION: Raffles College, Singapore
FAMILY: Married twice, eight children
Robert Kuok Hock Nien is reputedly the richest man in Malaysia(worth US$5 bil). While handing
more authority to the next generation, Kuok remains the man in charge, and
he is using the tough times to train his successors.

Kuok’s YouthKuok was born in 1923 in Johor Bahru, the son of a well-off commodities trader.
His ancestral town was in Fujian province, China.
An old boy of Raffles College in Singapore, he was a schoolmate of Singapore's
Senior Minister Lee Kuan Yew in the late 40s. After graduation, he helped out
at his father’s company, and founded the Kuok Brothers Sdn Bhd in 1949.

Acquiring the Mastery of BusinessAfter founding the Kuok Brothers Sdn Bhd, Kuok first started investing in the
sugar refinery business. In 1957, Malaya achieved independence from its
English colonial master. Kuok immediately seized the opportunity to swiftly
establish his business network throughout Malaysia, based on an end-to-end
raw materials Ú processing Ú distribution) business model. He also
mastered the intricacies of commodities trading in London in the 50s. By the
70s, he was known as the "Sugar King" as he controlled up to 10percent of the
global sugar market.
After proclaiming success in the sugar refinery business, he quickly moved into
other businesses, and established the largest flour mill in Malaysia.
Since the 60s, Kuok has relied heavily on his “gentlemanly” way of doing
business to become a mover and shaker in industry. He was fast in spotting
opportunities from at home and abroad, and used his excellent connections
with government and industry to rapidly scale up his empire. In this way, he
forged many strategic alliances with other parties. With the government, he
joint hands to form a shipping company, and later built hotels, office buildings
and convention centres. With partners, he founded banks. Thus, through
business savvy, open-mindedness and his links, he has diversified into almost
everything under the sun. Apart from a plethora of enterprises in Malaysia, he
operates in many other countries and regions like Singapore, Thailand, China,
Indonesia, Fiji and Australia. His business interests span from sugarcane
plantations, sugar refinery, four milling, animal feed, oil and mining to finance,
hotels, properties, trading and freight.
Kuok currently controls the Shangri-La Hotels and Resorts Chain, Kerry Group,
Perlis Plantations Bhd, and dozens of other companies. In the Kuala Lumpur
Stock Exchange, under family-owned Kuok Brothers Sdn Bhd, he commands a
market worth of RM2.1 billion (as of 1997), even though his publicly-traded
holdings worldwide is probably worth more than 10 times that.

Secret of His Success
When asked this, Kuoks aides will invariably say: “Mr Kuok is a true gentleman.
He has the power to make his opponents yield willingly, and is a genuinely
amicable man. And he makes it a personal effort to ensure that all his
employees embrace this ‘gentlemanly’ way of conducting business.”
Kuok’s gentlemanly ways are also well-recognised among his peers. He has
many a time bailed out his contemporaries in distress, and furthermore, he
does not seek the limelight, preferring to live a life of thrift and simplicity,
winning him accolades and admiration near and far.

Source:

Asiaweek Power50

03.08.07: Forbes.

Age: 78

Fortune: self made

Source: real estate

Net Worth: $6.1 bil

Country Of Citizenship: Singapore

Residence: Singapore , Singapore, Asia & Australia

Industry: Real Estate

Marital Status: married, 6 children

Education:

Singapore's richest man is one of the city-state's biggest real estate tycoons. His properties are held mostly through his private Far East Organization, which also owns one of the country's most popular beverage brands, Yeo Hiap Seng. Also holds assets in Hong Kong, mostly through publicly traded companies. Owns winning racehorses in his Lucky Stable.

Wikipedia:
Ng Teng Fong (born 1930) is a Singaporean real estate billionaire. His family owned the development corporation Sino Group.

Ng made his fortune with the help of one of Singapore's early billionaires, Eliya Thamby. Despite his fortune, he has attracted attention for his frugal lifestyle. Though he controls at least a quarter of Singapore's housing market, Ng lives in the same house he has had for 30 years, and used to take his own lunch on to airplanes.

Today, he is one of Hong Kong's largest real estate developers, and his Far East organization is one of the largest landholders in Singapore. He owns The Fullerton Singapore in Singapore. His older son, Robert, and younger son, Philip, are in charge of the Hong Kong and Singapore businesses respectively.

Ng's family net worth was $2.3 billion in 2004.

The Wealthy Passengers Whom I had Served

2007-05-07T08:20:00.000+08:00

In my 35 years with Singapore Airlines (SIA),I had met and served many wealthy passengers.Most of them travelled first class while others travelled in business and economy class. Some I had managed to speak to and others had secretly told me how they got rich.I had served the rich like the late Khoo Teck Puat,late Tun Mustapa,Robert Kuok,Ng Teng Fong,Richard Li and many more.I had finally concluded, after my interaction with these ernomously wealthy individuals that there are 2 main ways one could become wealthy.
1) Inheritance. (Through marriage or from their parents)
2) Hardwork,talent,thrift and luck.
Don't wait for me to tell you how to get wealthy. The reason is because I am not rich myself. If I am not wealthy then how can I teach you to be wealthy. So do your homework or consult your fortune tellers or your bankers and so forth and I wish you all the success in this world. As for me, to blog about how wealthy these individuals are , already gave me the "kick".

Heard of Nina wang? She was the richest woman in Asia. But how did she become rich?
Inheritance of course! Ms Wang ranked by Forbes as the 154th riches individual in the world. She was worth US$4.2 billions when she died last month at age 69.
She inherited her immense wealth from her late husband. For Ms. Wang it was a case of inheritance and marriage.

John Walton,the son of late Sam Walton of the Wal-Mart fame,inherited his vast fortune of US$16.5 bil from his father.
Now 4,300 stores worldwide, serving 100 million customers a week. Wal-Mart considering bid for British supermarket chain Safeway.

Marilyn Carlson Nelson: worth US$2 billion:Inherited.

Abigail Johnson:worth US$13 billion: Inherited.

Lakshmi Mittal: worth US$32; Inherited.

Bill Gates,The World Richest Man

2007-05-06T19:23:00.000+08:00

In 1984, Bill Gates appeared on the cover of TIME Magazine; he has since appeared seven more times.

William Henry Gates III (born October 28, 1955) is an American entrepreneur, philanthropist, and the chairman of Microsoft, the software company he founded with Paul Allen. During his career at Microsoft he has held the positions of CEO and chief software architect, and he remains the largest individual shareholder with more than 8% of the common stock. Forbes magazine's list of The World's Billionaires has ranked him as the richest person in the world since 1995 and recent estimates put his net worth near $56 billion. When family wealth is considered, his family ranks second behind the Walton family.

Gates is one of the better-known entrepreneurs of the personal computer revolution. Although he is widely admired, his business tactics have often been criticized as unethical or anti-competitive, and have, in some instances, been ruled as such in court. Since amassing his fortune, Gates has pursued a number of philanthropic endeavors, donating large amounts of money to various charitable organizations and scientific research programs through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, established in 2000.

Early life

Álvaro Uribe (the president of Colombia) and Bill Gates was born in Seattle, Washington to William H. Gates, Jr. (now Sr.) and Mary Maxwell Gates. His family was wealthy; his father was a prominent lawyer, his mother served on the board of directors for First Interstate Bank and the United Way, and her father, J. W. Maxwell, was a national bank president. Gates has one older sister, Kristi (Kristianne), and one younger sister, Libby. He was the fourth of his name in his family, but was known as William Gates III or "Trey" because his father had dropped his own "III" suffix. Several writers claim that Maxwell set up a million-dollar trust fund for Gates. A 1993 biographer who interviewed both Gates and his parents (among other sources) found no evidence of this and dismissed it as one of the "fictions" surrounding Gates's fortune. Gates denied the trust fund story in a 1994 interview and indirectly in his 1995 book The Road Ahead.

Gates excelled in elementary school, particularly in mathematics and the sciences. At thirteen he enrolled in the Lakeside School, Seattle's most exclusive preparatory school where tuition in 1967 was $5,000 (Harvard tuition that year was $1,760). When he was in the eighth grade, the school mothers used proceeds from a rummage sale to buy Lakeside an ASR-33 teletype terminal and a block of computer time on a General Electric computer. Gates took an interest in programming the GE system in BASIC and was excused from math classes to pursue his interest. After the Mothers Club donation was exhausted he and other students sought time on other systems, including DEC PDP minicomputers. One of these systems was a PDP-10 belonging to Computer Center Corporation, which banned the Lakeside students for the summer after it caught them exploiting bugs in the operating system to obtain free computer time.

At the end of the ban, the Lakeside students (Gates, Paul Allen, Ric Weiland, and Kent Evans) offered to find bugs in CCC's software in exchange for free computer time. Rather than use the system via teletype, Gates went to CCC's offices and studied source code for various programs that ran on the system, not only in BASIC but FORTRAN, LISP, and machine language as well. The arrangement with CCC continued until 1970, when it went out of business. The following year Information Sciences Inc. hired the Lakeside students to write a payroll program in COBOL, providing them not only computer time but royalties as well. At age 14, Gates also formed a venture with Allen, called Traf-O-Data, to make traffic counters based on the Intel 8008 processor. That first year he made $20,000 however when his age was discovered business slowed.

As a youth, Bill Gates was active in the Boy Scouts of America where he achieved its second highest rank, Life Scout.

According to a press inquiry, Bill Gates stated that he scored 1590 on his SATs. He enrolled at Harvard University in the fall of 1973 intending to get a pre-law degree but did not have a definite study plan. While at Harvard, he met his future business partner, Steve Ballmer. At the same time, he co-authored and published a paper on algorithms with computer scientist Christos Papadimitriou.

Personal life

Bill Gates and Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva in Davos. January 26, 2003,Gates married Melinda French of Dallas, Texas on January 1, 1994. They have three children: Jennifer Katharine Gates (1996), Rory John Gates (1999) and Phoebe Adele Gates (2002). Bill Gates' house is one of the most expensive houses in the world, and is a modern 21st century earth-sheltered home in the side of a hill overlooking Lake Washington in Medina, Washington. According to King County public records, as of 2006, the total assessed value of the property (land and house) is $125 million, and the annual property tax is just under $1 million. Also among Gates' private acquisitions is the Codex Leicester, a collection of writings by Leonardo da Vinci, which Gates bought for USD $30.8 million at an auction in 1994.

Gates' e-mail address has been widely publicized, and he received as many as 4,000,000 e-mails in 2004, most of which were spam. He has almost an entire department devoted to filtering out junk emails. Gates says that much of this junk mail "offers to help get out of debt or get rich quick", which "would be funny if it weren't so irritating".
Source: Wikipedia.

Richest Head of States.

2007-05-04T08:21:00.000+08:00

The richest head of state remains the Sultan of Brunei with $30 billion, down from an estimated of $36 billion last year.

Saudi Arabia's King Fahd is catching up, with an estimated wealth of $28 billion, up from $25 billion last year.

Saudi Arabia is the world's largest oil producer, and oil wealth is treated as indistinguishable from the wealth of the ruling Al-Saud family.

But as Crown Prince Abdullah said at last year's Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) summit, "the boom days of easy petrodollars are gone forever."

In Forbes' "Working rich list", Saudi Arabia also boasts five billionaires from the banking and investment sectors.

A member of the ruling Al-Saud family, Prince al-Walid ibn Talal, is easily the richest of these, with an estimated $15 billion, based on extensive investments in US and European blue-chip stocks and hotel investments.

Best of the rest

The world's third richest head of state is Sheikh Zayed of the United Arab Emirates with $20 billion.
The Emir of Kuwait, Jaber Al-Ahmed Al-Sabah, comes in fourth with $17 billion.

Queen Elizabeth of the UK is in fifth spot, but most of her wealth (the Royal Collection, including the crown jewels) is held in trust for the nation and her personal holdings are estimated at a mere $450 million.

Sheikh Maktoum Bin Rashid Al Maktoum of Dubai lies in sixth place, with $12 billion from oil, investments and services.

The Emir of Kuwait returning from exile in 1991

Bringing up the rear

Queen Beatrix of Netherlands makes an unexpected appearance at No 8 with $5.2 billion - reportedly as a result of a number of clever investments.

But it is back to the Middle East for Nos 9 and 10. Sheikh Hamad Bin Khalifa Al Thani of Qatar has $5 billion in oil and investments, while President Hafez Al-Assad of Syria has $2 billion in oil and agriculture.

An honourable mention goes to Rafik al-Hariri, not a head of state but a former Prime Minister of Lebanon.

His Saudi-based contracting company Saudi Oger brought his personal wealth up to $4 billion in 1998-99.

What the populations of the seven Arab countries think of the wealth of their unelected leaders is not recorded.

Richest Men In Middle East Video

2007-05-04T08:04:00.000+08:00

Oil prices shot up due to Nigerian voilence Thursday.

2007-05-03T20:13:00.000+08:00

London Brent crude up 46 cents to $66.71 a barrel, after dipping 75 cents on Wednesday.
U.S. crude gained 30 cents to $63.98. Oil prices fell Wednesday after the US government said demand for gasoline had slowed down.

The voilence in Nigeria could disrupt world supplies as it is the world's eighth largest oil exporter.

Around 17 foreign workers in Nigeria's oil companies were kidnapped by gunmen on Thursday, six from an offshore platform.

Warren E. Buffett

2007-04-28T21:39:00.000+08:00

Born: August 30, 1930 (1930-08-30) (age 76)
Omaha, Nebraska, USA
Occupation: CEO, Berkshire Hathaway, investor, philanthropist
Salary: US$100,000 (2006) [1]
Net worth: US$52 billion (2007) [2]
Spouse: Susan Buffett (1952-2004),
Astrid Menks (2006-)
Children: Howard Graham Buffett,
Peter Buffett, Susie Buffett

The Oracle of Omaha -- the world's greatest
stock market investor -- lives in a house he bought
for $31,500, dines on burgers and quotes Mae West.
He's worth $36 billion (US$52 billion in 2007) ... give or take a few mil.

- - - - - - - - - - - -
By Larry Kanter

Aug. 31, 1999 Donald and Mildred Othmer were hardly a remarkable couple. He was a professor of chemical engineering at Polytechnic University in Brooklyn, with a small consulting business on the side. She was a former teacher who spent most of her time volunteering for New York civic and arts organizations. They had no children.

But when Donald and Mildred Othmer died click here for more

Exclusive Financial and Business News

2007-04-05T09:40:00.000+08:00

Fidelity Fund Posts Best Returns of Europe's 10 Biggest Stock Mutual Funds Fidelity International's $8.5 billion European Fund posted the highest first-quarter returns of Europe's 10 biggest stock mutual funds by holding shares of takeover targets including Altadis SA of Spain.

Tribune's Purchase by Zell Will Lift Debt to $13 Billion as Ad Sales Drop Billionaire Sam Zell's takeover of Tribune Co. would saddle the publisher of the Chicago Tribune and the Los Angeles Times with about $13 billion of debt as advertising sales and circulation decline.

Cheapest Stocks in 20 Years Signal Bull Market as U.S. Economy Slows Down The U.S. economy is slowing. Mortgage defaults are rising. And stocks are the cheapest in 20 years, a ``buy'' signal for some of the world's biggest money managers.

Pfizer Pain Pill May Kill You, New Ad Says, Now Here's Why You Buy It Pfizer Inc.'s Celebrex commercials, restarted today after the adds were pulled two years ago because of the pain pill's ties to heart attacks, are breaking the rules for TV advertising, analysts and advertising experts say.

Show Me the Money: Japanese Housewives to Get Fair Share in Divorce Cases Middle-aged Japanese women in troubled marriages traditionally had two choices: stick it out or leave their financial security behind. That changed yesterday

Australian Dollar Reaches 10-Year High as Metals Prices Surge

2007-04-05T09:33:00.001+08:00

Australian Dollar Reaches 10-Year High as Metals Prices Surge

By David McIntyre

April 5 (Bloomberg) -- The Australian dollar rose to the strongest in more than a decade against the U.S. currency and an almost 10-year high versus the yen as the price of metals surged.

The local dollar today advanced against every currency except the Paraguay guarani as a measure of six metals traded on the London Metal Exchange index gained 2.4 percent to a record. Gold, the county's third-biggest commodity export, climbed to the highest in a month. Commodity exports add about 14 percent to Australia's economic growth.

``The market wanted to go up, which reflects the surge in base metals and gold prices,'' said Greg Gibbs, a currency strategist at ABN Amro Holding NV in Sydney. ``The risk is the Australian dollar pushes higher.''

The Australian dollar bought 81.88 U.S. cents at 8:24 a.m. in Sydney from 81.27 cents late in Asia yesterday. It reached 81.94 cents, the highest since 82.14 cents reached December 1996. It may exceed that today, Gibbs said.

The currency also climbed to 97.23 yen, the strongest since May 1997, and last traded at 97.17 from 96.66 yesterday.

To contact the reporter on this story: David McIntyre in Sydney at dmcintyre2@bloomberg.net

Singapore Stocks (Penny) recommendation.

2007-03-25T15:55:00.000+08:00

Buy CFM Holdings (Singapore).....its dirt cheap now,worth 11 cents (last Friday's close). Small company,cash rich. Buy and keep and be patient because it can go up to 30 cts. in no time.
100,000 shares would cost about $11,000+....can't lose.

Paper wins Mohammed cartoon case

2007-03-23T06:10:00.000+08:00

PARIS, France (Reuters) -- A French court on Thursday ruled in favor of a satirical weekly that had printed cartoons of the Prophet Mohammed, rejecting accusations by Islamic groups who said the publication incited hatred against Muslims.

The court said the cartoons published by the weekly Charlie Hebdo were covered by freedom of expression laws and did not constitute an attack on Islam in general but fundamentalists.

The cartoons, originally published in 2005 by a Danish daily, provoked violent protests in Asia, Africa and the Middle East that left 50 people dead. Several European publications reprinted them as an affirmation of free speech.

The public prosecutor had argued the cartoons were protected by freedom of speech and recommended that the case be dismissed.

With France's presidential election only a month away, the court case has been overshadowed by election politics. Interior Minister Nicolas Sarkozy, the conservative frontrunner, his centrist rival Francois Bayrou and Socialist party leader Francois Hollande have all spoken out in defense of the weekly.

Borders Books to end Amazon.com deal

2007-03-23T06:08:00.000+08:00

Mar 22, 2007, 15:00 GMT

ANN ARBOR, MI, United States (UPI) -- U.S. bookseller Borders Group Inc. said Thursday it would reopen its own branded e-commerce Web site next year, ending a seven-year alliance with Amazon.com.

It also said it would sell or franchise most of its 73 overseas Borders stores, including Britain`s Books etc. chain, which it purchased in 1997.

The move to explore a sale of the international operations reflects 'the company`s decision to focus on the U.S. Borders superstore business as key to future growth,' it announced.

Borders, of Ann Arbor, Mich., is the second largest U.S. bookstore chain, after Barnes & Noble, and operates 499 U.S. superstores, up from about 290 at the start of 2000.

The company will close nearly half its 564 U.S. Waldenbooks outlets after shutting 124 stores in 2006.

Borders will retain its Paperchase gifts and stationery business and the franchise operations in Malaysia and Dubai and its stores in Puerto Rico, it said.

In addition, Borders plans to build its proprietary publishing operation by striking deals with Hollywood writers, celebrities and best-selling authors, The Wall Street Journal reported.

News Corp., NBC Begin YouTube Rival to Reclaim Shows (Update4)

2007-03-23T06:03:00.000+08:00

By Cecile Daurat

March 22 (Bloomberg) -- News Corp. and NBC Universal Inc. are leading a group of media companies building an online video service designed to break the dominance of Google Inc.'s YouTube.

NBC and News Corp. will create a new Web site that features full-length films and television shows, the companies said today. Yahoo! Inc., Microsoft Corp.'s MSN and Time Warner Inc.'s AOL, Google's biggest rivals, will distribute the shows on their sites.

NBC Universal, with a TV network and movie studio, and Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., owner of the MySpace Web site and Fox television, are seeking to reclaim the users who watch clips of their shows on YouTube, and those who create their own videos. The media companies are up against a site that attracted more than 130 million visitors in January, mainly because of the user-generated clips.

``It really does seem like everyone is taking sides against Google and YouTube,'' said Greg Sterling, an analyst at Sterling Market Intelligence in Oakland, California.

News Corp. and NBC Universal said they will devote ``a significant'' marketing and promotional budget to the new site, which will start in the U.S. summer.

The venture will have movies such as ``Borat'' and television shows such as Fox's ``The Simpsons'' and NBC's ``Heroes.'' Yahoo, owner of the most-visited U.S. Web site, Microsoft's MSN Internet unit, New York-based Time Warner's AOL and MySpace will feature videos from the service on their Web sites and promote them.

Google Role?

``We're willing to sit down and talk to anybody'' willing to join the venture, News Corp. Chief Operating Officer Peter Chernin said on a conference call.

Chernin said he talked about the venture with Google Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt earlier today.

``Eric Schmidt is considering this,'' Chernin said. ``Obviously, this is not a YouTube killer.''

The willingness of media rivals to forge a partnership underscores the pressure they feel to rein in the widening use of their shows across the Web. The companies are wrestling with their competing desire to increase the audience for their shows and maintain control over copyright and advertising revenue.

The venture also highlights a split among broadcasters. CBS Corp., which isn't part of the group, has chosen to partner with YouTube and this month is showing ``March Madness'' basketball clips on the site. CBS, chaired by Sumner Redstone, said today it will continue to pursue its own online video initiatives.

Viacom Suit

Viacom Inc., the New York-based owner of the MTV and VH1 cable-TV networks, sued YouTube last week, claiming $1 billion in damages, for allowing users to post copyrighted material on its site. Viacom said clips of its shows have been watched 1.5 billion times on YouTube.

Time Warner, the world's largest media company, and News Corp. publicly supported New York-based Viacom in its fight to protect copyrighted content, and News Corp. has also forced YouTube to take down clips of some of its shows.

Viacom, which is also chaired by Redstone and isn't part of the new site, said the venture is a ``welcome addition.'' Viacom Chief Executive Officer Philippe Dauman has said the company is working on online video initiatives of its own.

Shares of Mountain View, California-based Google, which paid $1.65 billion for YouTube last year, gained $5.49 to $462.04 as of 4 p.m. New York time in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. News Corp.'s Class A shares fell 10 cents to $23.33.

Fairfield, Connecticut-based General Electric Co., parent of NBC Universal, rose 33 cents to $35.81.

Advertisers including General Motors Corp., Intel Corp., Cisco Systems Inc. and Cadbury Schweppes Plc. have signed on, News Corp. and NBC said in the statement.

`Unexpected Negative'

The venture will be based in New York and Los Angeles and George Kliavkoff, NBC Universal's chief digital officer, will lead a transitional management team, the companies said.

Tim Boyd, an analyst at Caris & Co. in New York, called the new site an `unexpected negative'' for Google. He rates Yahoo shares ``above average'' and Google ``buy'' and doesn't own either.

More than 133 million people visited YouTube in January, 14 times more than a year earlier, according to Reston, Virginia- based Web-use tracker ComScore Networks Inc.

``We value our relationships with NBC and Fox as they continue to upload content to promote their signature programming and look forward to working with them in the future,'' Julie Supan, YouTube's director of global communications, said today in a statement.

MySpace Role

NBC, the fourth-ranked U.S. television network, and News Corp.'s Fox have put their shows on Apple Inc.'s iPods and their own Web sites to help retain viewers and forge advertising revenue from the Web.

New York-based News Corp. bought MySpace for $580 million to get a bigger slice of the online advertising market. The company will allow MySpace users to display shows on their pages.

Jeff Zucker, who succeeded Bob Wright as president of NBC Universal last month, has been tasked with reviving revenue and lifting online ad sales.

Earlier this month, NBC Sports teamed with Time Warner's Sports Illustrated magazine to make videos, photos and breaking news available on their respective sites and lure more users.

To contact the reporters on this story: Cecile Daurat in New York at cdaurat@bloomberg.net .

Last Updated: March 22, 2007 16:29 EDT

Business and Financial News around the World.

2007-03-22T20:51:00.000+08:00

Wall Street rallies as Fed keeps rates on holdPosted: 22 March 2007 0532 hrs
NEW YORK : The US stock market rallied on Wednesday after the Federal Reserve kept its key short-term interest rate anchored at 5.25 percent and lifted hopes for an easier monetary policy later this year. Investors cheered the announcement, sending the Dow Jones Industrial Average 159.42 points (1.30 percent) higher to a close of 12,447.52. Click here to continue

Business and Financial News around the World.

2007-03-22T17:00:00.000+08:00

Fed caution takes pundits by surprise.... Rate on hold: Bernanke signals increases off the table
Peter Morton Washington Bureau Chief, Financial PostPublished: Thursday, March 22, 2007
The U.S. Federal Reserve unexpectedly took the prospect of future interest rate hikes off the table yesterday, catching economists off guard... click here for more news.

The Power Of Telemarketing...Telemarketing is a powerful tool. It has been proven time and time again that using the phone to obtain business
not only works, but is a more cost effective way to generate...click here

Pet food maker's woes mount
KEITH MCARTHUR AND ANTHONY REINHART
Menu Foods Income Fund, the continent's largest maker of private label wet pet food, sunk to new lows yesterday as grieving pet owners took to the courts and investors knocked the company's units for the fourth successive trading day.
A class-action suit was filed yesterday in Windsor, Ont...click here

Malaysia rolls out incentives to build own 'Hong Kong'
Posted : 22 Mar 2007 1611 hrs
Malaysia on Thursday announced tax cuts and other measures in order to attract foreign investors to develop a massive project in southern Johor state into a major regional financial hub. Full Story »

For Asia Pacific Business News click here