花旗集團預測的數據顯示，澳洲首富“富婆”吉娜?萊恩哈特有望取代身家460億美元的墨西哥大亨卡洛斯?斯利姆成為全球首富。據悉，現年57歲的吉娜?萊恩哈特很低調，很少出現在公眾視野中。她20年前從父親手中繼承了負債累累的礦業集團，不過在過去這些年，隨著鐵礦石產品的熱銷，她擁有的財富總額也不斷累加。據澳大利亞一家商業網站預測，萊恩哈特公司目前的市值約為300億美元，不過隨著三個礦業開采項目的展開，她每年的收入將達到100億美元。由于該公司全權歸萊恩哈特所有，沒有股東參股，所以全部收入都將歸入她的個人凈資產，其總額有望超過1000億美元。

Gina Rinehart, chairman of Hancock Prospecting

Gina Rinehart, an Australian woman who inherited a debt-ridden mining company from her father 20 years ago is set to become the world's richest person.

Gina Rinehart, 57, is the richest person in Australia and predicted to become the wealthiest in the world.

Her fortune has more than doubled to A$10.3 billion (￡6.8 billion) in the past year because of a commodities boom.

She is on course to overtake Carlos Slim, the Mexican magnate worth ￡46 billion, and the Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, who is worth ￡35 billion, Citigroup has estimated.

The financial group calculates that three coal and iron ore projects she is developing will lead her to overtake the men mainly because she owns her companies outright and has no shareholders.

“If Rinehart was a company listed on the [Australia Stock Exchange] and valued using the same 11-times price-to-earnings ratio as her partner, Rio Tinto, she would be worth US$30 billion (￡19 billion), putting her in the top ten of the Forbes rich list, said SmartCompany, an Australian business website.

“It is possible to see Rinehart’s portfolio of coal and iron ore production spinning off annual profits approaching US$10 billion,” giving her a “personal net worth valuation of more than US$100 billion,” it added.

Ms Rinehart avoids publicity and is barely known outside of the business community. In 1952 her father, Lang Hancock, discovered the world’s largest iron ore deposit in Australia’s Pilbara region.

She married twice. Her second husband was Frank Rinehart, an American lawyer, who died in 1990.

The world's wealthiest woman is Christy Walton, the widow of John Walton, the Wal-Mart heir, who is worth $26.5bn.

相關閱讀

美17位富豪加入“捐贈誓言”

英富豪出百萬征“裸奔”勇士

德億萬富翁成危機后自殺又一人

(Agencies)

（中國日報網英語點津 Helen ）