World's 5 richest people lose S$12.4b in market rout on 1st trading day of 2016

Berkshire Hathaway chief executive officer Warren Buffett. PHOTO: REUTERS

NEW YORK (BLOOMBERG) - The world's five richest people lost US$8.7 billion (S$12.4 billion) on Monday (Jan 4) in a global stock sell-off sparked by weak factory data in China and a flare-up in tensions between Saudi Arabia and Iran.

Amazon.com Inc. founder Jeff Bezos led decliners on the Bloomberg Billionaires Index in the first trading day of 2016, losing US$3.7 billion as the world's largest online retailer fell 5.8 per cent. His net worth is now US$56 billion.

Spain's Amancio Ortega dropped US$2.5 billion to US$70.4 billion as his Inditex SA, the biggest fashion retailer, fell 3.5 per cent.

Berkshire Hathaway chief executive officer Warren Buffett, Mexico's Carlos Slim and Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, the richest person on the planet, lost a combined US$2.5 billion.

The biggest gainer was activist investor Carl Icahn, whose net worth climbed US$210.4 million to US$20.1 billion.

The Bloomberg index is a daily ranking of the world's 400 richest people, who lost a combined US$82.4 billion for the day.

*SOURCE: BLOOMBERG

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