The super-rich may be worth more now than there were a year ago, but Bermuda can still boast being a billionaires' playground.

Among the billionaires who made Forbes magazine's list of billionaires announced last week were Five Star Island resident Curt Engelhorn, who was identified as the 49th richest person on the world with a fortune estimated at $5.7 billion.

Mr. Engelhorn was one of the owners of Bermuda-based Corange Ltd., which in turn controlled German pharmaceutical company Boeringher Mannheim.

When the company was sold to Swiss drugmaker Roche Holdings in 1997 for $11 billion, it netted Mr. Engelhorn an estimated $5 billion at the time.

Mr. Engelhorn has given large amounts of money to the Bermuda College and the Bermuda Biological Station.

Mr. Engelhorn is in good company on the list. Listed four places above him is Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian Prime Minister whose media empire's wealth is estimated at 5.9 billion and includes the Tucker's Town home Blue Horizons.

Also making the list again is former US presidential candidate H. Ross Perot, who lives across the road from Mr. Berlusconi.

His fortune is valued at $3.7 billion or 88th on the list.

Rounding out the collection of Tucker's Town billionaire-politicians is New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg whose fortune from his privately-owned financial trading and business news company is put at $4.8 billion, putting him 63rd on the list.

Fidelity Investments founder Edward (Ned) Johnson III, who helped to finance the Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute and owns a Somerset home, is 72nd on the list and is believed to be worth $4.1 billion.

Top American International Group executive Ernest Stempel, a Pembroke resident, is 329th on the list.

His wealth, largely based on AIG shares, is $1.3 billion.

Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates led the overall list for the ninth straight year, but the Microsoft co-founder's net worth fell 23 percent from a year ago to $40.7 billion.

Investment guru Warren Buffett remained in second place with $30.5 billion, a 13 percent drop from last year.

Gates' personal wealth, much of it in company stock, has diminished by 60 percent since April 1998, when it briefly reached $100 billion.

His worst year was 1999, when it plunged by a third as the government pursued an antitrust case against Microsoft. Forbes notes he is also the world's biggest giver, donating $1 billion annually to charity, largely to vaccine research.

Oprah Winfrey became the first black woman to make the list as her media empire grew steadily stronger and Forbes put her worth at $1 billion.

Her debut comes just two years after Black Entertainment Television founder Robert Johnson became the first black billionaire.

Membership in the exclusive club fell by 21 this year to 476, the third year of declines since the economy weakened and stock markets started falling. The group's combined wealth also fell to $1.4 trillion from $1.54 trillion last year.

"You see the poor economies wreaking havoc on their finances like everyone else. They're not immune," said Louisa Kroll, who edited Forbes' March billionaires issue, which hit the newsstands on Friday.