World’s 400 richest add $92 billion in 2014 as Alibaba jumps

The richest people on Earth got richer in 2014, adding $92 billion to their collective fortune in the face of falling energy prices and geopolitical turmoil incited by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

The net worth of the world’s 400 wealthiest billionaires on Dec. 29 stood at $4.1 trillion, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index, a daily ranking of the planet’s richest.

The biggest gainer was Jack Ma, the co-founder of Alibaba Group, China’s largest e-commerce company. Ma, a former English teacher who started the Hangzhou-based company in his apartment in 1999, added $25.1 billion to his fortune, riding a 56 percent surge in the company’s shares since its September initial public offering. Ma, 50, with a $28.7 billion fortune, briefly passed Li Ka-shing as Asia’s richest person.

Two of the year’s other biggest gainers were Warren Buffett and Mark Zuckerberg. Buffett, the chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., added $13.7 billion to his net worth after the Omaha, Neb.-based company soared 28 percent as the dozens of operating businesses the 84-year-old chairman bought over the past five decades churned out record profit.

Buffett passed Mexican telecommunications billionaire Carlos Slim on Dec. 5 to become the world’s second-richest person. Bill Gates, co-founder of Microsoft Corp., was up $9.1 billion during the year. The 59-year-old remains the world’s richest person with a $87.6 billion fortune.

Zuckerberg, the hoodie-wearing chief executive officer of Facebook, the world’s largest social-networking company, added $10.6 billion to his $35 billion asset sheet as the Menlo Park, Calif.-based business rose to a record on Dec. 22.

But he remained just behind Alice Walton, the richest person in Texas who ranks No. 12 among the world's billionaires. Walton, the daughter of the late founder of the Wal-Mart retail chain, has a ranch in Millsap. She has a net worth of $34.9 billion, up $3.8 billion.

This year Facebook made headway in mobile, a business that has flourished as mobile advertising increased and marketing initiatives expanded with applications and video. Facebook’s acquisition of Instagram in 2012 for $1 billion has also been paying off: A Citigroup analyst said on Dec. 19 the photo-sharing app is worth $35 billion.

Zuckerberg’s company faced a challenge in Russia, where the blocking of a Facebook page promoting a Russian opposition rally highlighted the challenges the social network faces as Putin cracks down on the Internet amid a looming economic downturn. The European Union and U.S. limited Russian companies’ access to financing to punish Putin after he annexed Crimea in March. Russia’s troubles have been worsened by the corresponding plunge in the price of oil, a bedrock of the country’s economy.

Vladimir Evtushenkov lost 80 percent of his wealth or $8.1 billion, dropping him from the Bloomberg ranking. He was sentenced to house arrest by September after a money-laundering investigation connected to the $2.5 billion purchase of shares in oil producer OAO Bashneft.

Leonid Mikhelson, CEO Novatek, Russia’s second-largest natural gas producer, of has been the biggest loser in dollar terms among those remaining in the country’s 20 richest, dropping $7.8 billion since the start of the year. The 59-year-old is the chief executive officer of OAO which fell 44 percent during the year. He has a $10.1 billion fortune, according to the Bloomberg ranking.

Viktor Vekelberg surpassed Alisher Usmanov as Russia’s richest person after Usmanov’s MegaFon OAO lost almost half its value since June. Vekselberg is worth $14.1 billion, while Usmanov fell 32 percent to $13.8 billion.

One of only a few Russians among the world’s 400 richest who gained in 2014 was aluminum billionaire Oleg Deripaska, who added $1.6 billion as his Hong Kong-based United Co. Rusal rose 122 percent. Deripaska has increased his fortune to $8.2 billion. He’s the world’s 154th-richest person.

“The reputation of Russian business in the west has become worse, and will continue to get worse,” said Stanislav Belkovsky, a Kremlin adviser during Putin’s first term who now consults for Moscow’s Institute for National Strategy, a research firm. “That means that the capabilities for Russia’s billionaires to run businesses abroad are going to decrease.”

Belkovsky says Putin will try to compensate the country’s sanctioned businessmen by giving them access to different state resources.

“The competition for resources will increase, as will the redistribution of ownership,” he said.

Sheldon Adelson, the gambling mogul who controls Las Vegas Sands Corp., the world’s largest casino company, fell $8.7 billion as the Las Vegas-based company dropped 25 percent.

Macau’s casinos are looking at their first down year in revenue since the market was opened to foreign operators in 2002, after China’s President Xi Jinping cracked down on corruption on the mainland and high-rollers shunned the gambling enclave. More than half of the company’s 2013 $13.8 billion in revenue comes from Macau.

Adelson’s decline was followed by Jeffrey Bezos, 50, the chairman of Amazon.com, who had $7.2 billion trimmed from his fortune as the Seattle-based company lost ground in the cloud computing market to crosstown competitor Microsoft Corp. He ranks 21st in the world with a $28.7 billion fortune.

Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla Motors and SpaceX, added $2.9 billion to his net worth, most of which was the result of a 50 percent gain by Tesla, the world’s largest electric-car manufacturer.

China’s 10 richest people have added almost $48 billion combined year-to-date. Following Ma’s $25.1 billion gain, technology entrepreneurs Richard Liu of online retailer JD.com and Robin Li of Baidu. added a combined $8 billion.

Bloomberg News uncovered 86 new or hidden billionaires who had never appeared on an international wealth ranking. Among them were the six heirs to a $13 billion Monaco fortune that were unveiled after the family’s matriarch, Helene Pastor, was gunned down in a parking lot in Nice, France, in May.

Carlos Pellas became Nicaragua’s first billionaire rebuilding his family sugar mill and parlaying the proceeds into a new bank, BAC-Credomatic, which he sold to General Electric about $1.7 billion.

Other Latin America fortunes that emerged include five billionaire relatives from Brazil – Joesley, Wesley, Valere, Vanessa and Vivianne Batista — who created the world’s biggest beef producer after making more than $17 billion in acquisitions. Their company, JBS, rode the biggest stock rally in Brazil, jumping 30 percent year-to-date, fueled by surging beef prices and Russia’s lifting of a ban on Brazilian meat-processing plants.

A surge in real estate and corporate valuations elevated the fortunes of at least five Blackstone Group billionaires. Co-founder and chairman Steven Schwartzman added $926 million as the company rose 7.6 percent.

Staff writer Sandra Baker contributed to this report

This story was originally published December 31, 2014 at 9:23 AM with the headline "World’s 400 richest add $92 billion in 2014 as Alibaba jumps."