It’s been a very prosperous year to be a billionaire, data from the 2021 Forbes list of the World’s Billionaires shows. And that is true in Mexico as well. The country’s billionaire ranks swelled by one since last year to 13 list members, while their combined net worth rose by nearly a third to $136.1 billion (up from $103 billion).
Just over a year ago, Forbes took a snapshot of the world’s wealthiest using stock prices and exchange rates from March 18, 2020. The Mexican peso had fallen to 24 pesos per U.S. dollar, a 25% drop measured from the beginning of 2020. Stock prices had tumbled as well.
For the 2021 list of the world’s wealthiest, Forbes used exchange rates and stock prices from March 5, 2021. The Mexican peso had strengthened to about 21 pesos per U.S. dollar, and stock prices of many companies founded and run by Mexican billionaires rebounded significantly.
Carlos Slim Helu keeps his long-held spot as Mexico’s richest person. At an estimated $62.8 billion, he’s worth $10.7 billion more than a year ago. Though his fortune has grown, he’s fallen to 16th richest person in the world, from No. 12 richest on last year’s list, as others like Larry Page and Sergey Brin, the cofounders of Google, as well as the world’s richest woman, L’Oreal heir Francoise Bettencourt Meyers, moved up in the rankings.
German Larrea Mota Velasco rose to become the second richest Mexican billionaire this year, up from No. 3 last year, as shares of his mining firm Grupo Mexico more than doubled in value. He’s worth an estimated $25.9 billion on this year’s list, up from an estimated $11 billion last year.
David Penaloza Alanis, CEO of toll road company Promotora y Operadora de Infraestructura, known as “Pinfra,” returns to the ranks after falling off in 2020. Shares of Pinfra have been on a roller coaster ride during the past year but were worth slightly more on March 5 this year than on March 18, 2020. The stronger peso also helped boost Penaloza’s fortune in dollar terms.
Fernando Chico Pardo, chairman and president of airport management firm Grupo Aeroportuario del Sureste, also returns to the ranks after falling off in 2020.
Longtime billionaires list member Jeronimo Arango, who co-founded retailer Cifra with his brothers and sold it to Walmart in 1997, died at age 94 in April 2020.
Click HERE to see Mexico’s 13 billionaires’ net worths as of March 5, 2021.