In a battle featuring the two wealthiest families in America, individual members of the Walton family are set to unseat David and Charles Koch on Forbes’ real-time rankings of the world’s richest people. The Koch Brothers share the spot of the 6th-wealthiest fortune in the world with net worths of $40.6 billion each, but Christy Walton, the richest Walton and the richest woman in the world at $40.6 billion, has drawn level and is poised to surpass them as Wal-Mart stock keeps chugging along. Brother-in-law Jim Walton isn’t far behind, either, at $39.7 billion.
In recent months, the Koch’s fortunes have declined amid falling oil prices. The Koch’s were worth $42 billion each in September for the Forbes 400 annual rankings of America’s richest, but the recent drop in the oil market has diminished the estimated value of the Kochs’ refinery business, their second most valuable asset behind pulp and paper conglomerate Georgia-Pacific.
Meanwhile, Wal-Mart stock -- the bulk of the Walton family fortune -- has been on the rebound. The company has been trading at all-time highs in November and December after it posted strong third-quarter earnings that included a 2.9% bump in total revenue from the previous year to $119 billion. Sales had been stagnant of late for the giant retailer, and its stock hovered in the mid-to-low $70 range in August and September. Today, shares closed at just under $84 per share, making Christy Walton’s more than 400 million shares in the company worth $33.8 billion. She also owns more than $1 billion worth of stock in solar energy company First Solar, though that holding has declined in value by 40% in the past three months. Additionally, she has nearly $6 billion in cash and other assets, mostly Wal-Mart dividends accrued over time. Walton, who leads a very private life in Jackson, Wyoming, inherited her wealth from husband John, who died in a plane crash in 2005.
With an estimated net worth of $165 billion, the Walton clan is by far the richest family in America. The Kochs come in a distant second at $89 billion. Jim, who runs the family’s Arvest Bank, is the second-wealthiest Walton at $39.7 billion. Alice, an avid art collector, is worth $38.3 billion and Rob, long-time chairman of Wal-Mart, is worth $38.2 billion. Their father Sam (d. 1992) founded the now global superstore in Arkansas in 1962 and warned his children against selling their stakes in the family company. Not bad as far as fatherly advice goes.
