Butt's wealth surpasses $10-billion mark

Charles Butt ranked 121 on Forbes' list of billionaires for 2014, with a net worth of $10.1 billion. Charles Butt ranked 121 on Forbes' list of billionaires for 2014, with a net worth of $10.1 billion. Photo: H-E-B Photo: H-E-B Image 1 of / 17 Caption Close Butt's wealth surpasses $10-billion mark 1 / 17 Back to Gallery

SAN ANTONIO — Grocery magnate Charles Butt and his family have surpassed the $10 billion mark in holdings and remain — by a long shot — the wealthiest of six San Antonio billionaires on Forbes magazine's listing of the world's billionaires for 2014.

Butt, the 76-year-old chairman and CEO of H-E-B, ranked No. 121 on the list, released Monday, with a net worth of $10.1 billion. A year ago, Forbes listed Butt at No. 157, with a net worth of $7.4 billion.

Butt is H-E-B's majority shareholder. The magazine notes that two siblings and two nephews also own stakes in the supermarket chain.

Like Butt, the other five San Antonio billionaires have appeared previously in the magazine's wealth rankings, both among the world's billionaires and among the richest Americans.

Natural-gas driller Rodney Lewis, 60, is the second-richest San Antonian, with a net worth of $2.4 billion, and is tied with others at No. 731 in the world. A year ago, the magazine estimated his wealth at $2.6 billion and ranked him at No. 418 in the world.

Tom Benson, 86, owner of the NFL's New Orleans Saints, is ranked in a tie at No. 1,154 in the world, with a net worth of $1.5 billion. A year ago, Forbes ranked Benson at No. 1,075 with a net worth of $1.2 billion. Benson is listed by Forbes as a New Orleans resident, but he also has a San Antonio home and local banking interests.

Silver Ventures owner Christopher “Kit” Goldsbury, 71, is ranked in a tie at No. 1,210 with a net worth of $1.4 billion, up from $1.35 billion a year ago, when Goldsbury was listed at No. 1,088 in the world.

Investor B.J. “Red” McCombs, 86, is ranked in a tie with Goldsbury and others at the No. 1,210 position in the world with a fortune also of $1.4 billion, up from $1.3 billion a year ago, when he was ranked at No. 1,107.

Kinetic Concepts Inc. founder James Leininger, 68, ranks in a tie at No. 1,284, with a net worth of $1.3 billion, up from $1.1 billion and a ranking of No. 1,268.

A record 1,645 billionaires made Forbes' 2014 list. One hundred people dropped off the list from a year ago, while 16 of them died since last year's list.

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One of those falling off was San Antonio's Graham Weston, Rackspace Hosting Inc.'s co-founder, chairman and CEO. Weston initially was incorrectly left off last year's list, but after an email seeking clarification, he was added to that list, with a net worth then of $1.25 billion. A drop in Rackspace share prices since then has caused his net worth to fall below the $1 billion mark.

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates is back on top of the list of the world's richest people, with an estimated net worth of $76 billion. Gates won the top spot back from Mexican telecom mogul Carlos Slim Helú, who had topped the list the past four years.

Forbes said the 1,645 billionaires on the 2014 list had an average net worth of $4.7 billion, up from the 1,426 billionaires last year with an average net worth of $4.2 billion. Total net worth of this year's list is $6.4 trillion, up from $5.4 trillion last year.

The largest net worth gainer on the list was Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, who more than doubled his fortune to $28.5 billion as the value of his company's stock rose. Zuckerberg ranks 21st on the list.

The United States was the country with the greatest number of billionaires, at 492, followed by China with 152 and Russia with 111.