El Super-Super Spanish....

Amancio Ortega, the richest Spaniard/Amancio Ortega, el español más rico

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Spanish fashion entrepreneur Amancio Ortega, with a fortune of 22 billion euros (31 billion dollars), stands at seventh place in the ranking of the richest men in the world in 2011, according to the list compiled by ´Forbes' magazine.
The fortune of Inditex´s founder has increased by about 1.7 billion euros compared to the figure which had he last year, 18.3 billion euros. Thus, the Galician entrepreneur has managed to climb two places in the ranks of great fortunes in the world compared to 2010, when he ranked ninth.
Amancio Ortega is also one of only two Europeans who appear in the list of great fortunes, together with Frenchman Bernard Arnault, chairman of LVHM - whose flagship is the Louis Vuitton brand, ranks fourth with a fortune of 29 billion euros (41 billion dollars).
For the second consecutive year, the telecommunications magnate Carlos Slim tops the list, with a wealth valued at 52 billion euros (74 billion dollars), a 3 billion increase on the previous year.
Microsoft founder, Bill Gates- master of the list for 13 of the last 15 years, remains in second place, with assets currently valued at 40 billion euros (56 billion), compared with 39 billion euros in 2010.
The list is completed by U.S. investor Warren Buffett (35 billion euros), American Larry Ellison, Oracle founder (28 billion euros), Indian tycoon Lakshmi Mittal Steel (22 billion euros), Brazilian Eike Batista (21 billion euros), Indian petrochemical businessman Mukesh Ambani (19 billion euros) and American Christy Walton, of the Wal-Mart supermarket empire (18 billion euros).
Spanish fortunes, withstanding the crisis
There are fifteen Spanish fortunes portrayed by the magazine this year, compared to thirteen in the previous list, and together they account for 63 billion dollars of the 4.5 trillion owned by the 1,210 billionaires in the list this year, a record for the publication.
To find another Spanish veteran in the Forbes ranking beyond Ortega, we have to reach place 159, where there is another textile manufacturer, Isak Andic, founder of Mango, with 6.1 billion dollars, after him is the former Inditex owner's wife, Rosalia Mera (254), with 4.2 billion.

Mera is still the richest woman in Spain, although in the past two years, Andic has snatched second place as the country's richest person.
It comes as a surprise to all the Spanish members the setback experienced by Santander banking group's president, Emilio Botín, who has gone from place 582 to 833, with a fortune of 1.5 billion dollars, 200 million less than a year ago.
Before Botín, property developer Manuel Jove (376) appears, advancing positions with 3 billion dollars (compared to 2.4 billion dollars last year) and he is the fourth richest person in Spain.
The fifth, as calculated by Forbes, is president of Mercadona supermarkets, Juan Roig (393), who debuted this year on the list with a fortune of 2.9 billion.
He is followed by the well-known Koplowitz sisters: Alice (512), who drops in position although her wealth has increased to 2.3 billion dollars- in 2010 she had 2.2 billion, and Esther (651), with 1.9 billion, one hundred million less than a year earlier.
In place 651 is constructor and president of Real Madrid, Florentino Perez, who Forbes estimates has a wealth of 1.9 billion, while the next Spaniard to appear on the list is steel businessman Jose Maria Aristrain (736 ), with 1.7 billion dollars.