Europe's wealthy move up rich list

Italian PM Silvio Berlusconi ranks 35th richest in the world

LONDON, England (CNN) -- Europe's wealthiest names have made a surprisingly strong showing in this year's Forbes billionaires list despite September 11 and the economic slowdown.

There are now no less than 121 Europeans with a billion-dollar fortune, according to Forbes Magazine's 16th annual rankings.

Certainly among the fortunes made from investment banking and real estate, Europe's contribution is rather more stylish -- among the names are Italy's Luciano Benetton, Giorgio Armani, Miccia Prada and Paulo Bulgari.

There are now more than 20 fashion billionaires worldwide with a combined fortune of $83 billion.

Europe's richest men have actually moved up two places in the pecking order, ousting more familiar American names.

EXTRA INFORMATION The Forbes list: World's top billionaires

German brothers Karl and Theo Albrecht, founders of the cut-price Aldi supermarket chain, are now third.

Of the world's three top wealthiest women, two are from Europe.

Italian Prime Minister and media mogul Silvio Berlusconi ($7.2 billion) shows at number 35, easily outpacing Australian-born American Rupert Murdoch (45th, $5.7 billion).

The number of billionaires dropped by 83 this year to 497 as recession and fallout from the terrorist attacks reduced their wealth. The group's combined worth fell to $1.54 trillion, from $1.73 trillion last year.

Predictably still in the number one spot ($52.8 billion) for the eight year running is Microsoft's Bill Gates. Not even a $5.9 billion loss could topple him from the pinnacle of the richest man on the planet.

Gates remained comfortably ahead of Warren Buffett, who held the number two spot with $35 billion.

Perhaps more interesting was the rise of reclusive German retailers Theo and Karl Albrecht who climbed two notches to number three, with a net value of $26.8 billion.

They pushed Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, ranked third last year with a value of $30.4 billion, to number four after he lost $5.2 billion, partly in the stock market slide. Larry Ellison of Oracle ($23.5 billion) is now fifth.

The Albrecht brothers are virtually unknown despite their success with the pile-'em-high-and-sell-'em-cheap-and-fast Aldi chain, which they began in their mother's corner store in the Ruhr valley in 1948.

They now own more than 4,000 Aldi stores in Germany and 10 other countries with estimated revenues of $27 billion.

They also have extensive landholdings in Germany. In the U.S. they hold 7 percent of Boise, Idaho-based Albertson's supermarkets and all of gourmet food and beverage chain Trader Joe's.

The brothers live such a Howard Hughes-style existence that no recent photographs exist of them. Their reluctance to enter the limelight is said to stem the 1971 kidnapping of Theo, who was held for 18 days in 1971. He reportedly collects old typewriters. Older brother Karl is said to play golf.

The next two Europeans in the list are both women.

Joanna Quandt, 74, ($18.4 billion) is 12th. She and her children Susanne and Stephan hold 50 percent of German luxury-car maker BMW, which last year despite the economic downturn, had the most successful year in the group's history, achieving record sales, up 7 percent.

The Quandt family also owns 19 percent of Gemplus, the world's leading smart-card vendor, and half of drugs and chemical producer Altana.

At Number 13 is Liliane Bettencourt ($14.9 billion) owner of L'Oreal and the richest person in France. The 79-year-old daughter of the firm's founder Eugene Schueller insists on keeping most of the company in private hands to ensure "stability."

She controls L'Oreal via a 51 percent of Gesparal, a holding company that owns 53.7 percent of L'Oreal. Nestle owns the remaining 49 percent of Gesparal.

The other Europeans in the billionaires' Top 20 are Sweden's Ingvar Kamprad of furniture giant IKEA (16th, $13.4 billion) and UK-based Swedes Kirsten Rausing and family (19th, $10.7 million) whose father invented "Tetra" packaging.

Other prominent Europeans include Spanish fashio guru Amancio Ortega, founder of Zara (25th, $9.1 billion), biotech dynasty Ernesto Bertarelli and family of Switzerland (31st, $8.4 billion), and the Netherlands' Charlene de Carvalho (76th, $4.3 billion) who inherited control of the Heineken empire from her father when he died in January.

Britain's richest man -- landowner Gerald Grosvenor, Duke of Westminster ($6.7 billion) -- only makes in in at No. 38.

One noticeable growth area is in Russian billionaires. The country's richest man, oligarch Mikhail Khodorkovsky, just fails to scrape into the Top 100.

The 38-year-old self-made oil entrepreneur, with an estimated fortune of $3.7 billion, makes the list at No. 101 compared with 194 last year.

Among the missing from this year's list: AOL Time Warner Chairman Steve Case, whose company's stock has declined by about half since last year, and Gary Winnick, chairman of Global Crossing, which filed for bankruptcy protection in January. AOL Time Warner is the parent corporation of CNN.

It was the second year of decline in the number of billionaires since a downturn in the technology sector began pressuring the world economy. The largest drop of 91 came last year.

The list was set using stock prices and exchange rates as of February 4.

The United States had more people on the list than any other country, with 243 billionaires, down from 272 last year. Their combined net worth fell by $111 billion. One of the bigger losers was CNN founder Ted Turner, now a vice chairman at AOL Time Warner, whose net worth was cut in half to $3.8 billion. He dropped 62 places on the list to No. 97.

Of the 497 total billionaires from 43 countries, 260 inherited some or all of their wealth, and the rest made their money themselves. Twenty-seven are college dropouts.