Thu 11 March 2010 | 10:40 GMT Text size:

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Forbes said this economic situation raised the number of Turkish billionaires in the list.

Forbes magazine’s annual list of billionaires has been published and for the first time in 16 years, a person from outside the US leads the rankings: Mexico’s Carlos Slim Helú beat Bill Gates and Warren Buffett for the top spot.

Armenian-American tycoon Kirk Kerkorian ranked 307th, dropping from last year’s 209th place, with a net worth of $3.1 billion (as compared to $5 bn last year). The other Armenian billionaire on Forbes’ list is self-made Russian businessman Danil Khachaturov (at number 828), who has a net worth of $1.2 billion, up $0.8 billion from last year.

Twenty-eight Turks took place in the 2010 billionaires list of US financial magazine Forbes.

Luisa Kroll, one of the editors of the magazine, said Turkish lira (TL) gained value against the USD made more Turks be included in the billionaires list.

Husnu Ozyegin, the owner of the FIBA Holding, is the richest Turkish person with 3 billion USD of wealth, according to the list.

Ozyegin was ranked the 316th in the list, and Mehmet Emin Karamehmet, the owner of Cukurova Holding, was at the 342nd place with 2.9 billion USD of wealth.

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