With nearly $60 billion, Mexican telecoms tycoon Carlos Slim Helu has overtaken Microsoft founder Bill Gates for the title of the world’s richest person, Fortune magazine reports in its latest edition, due to hit newsstands shortly.

Gates, who is now in second place, had held the title for at least a decade.

The strong performance by Slim’s holdings on the Mexican stock exchange in recent months (his companies make up one-third of the Mexican stock market) have pushed him into top spot. “His net worth has jumped $12 billion this year alone,” Fortune reports.

Mexican financial website Sentido Comun estimates that the 67-year-old Slim (who is of Lebanese origin) is in fact even richer, with a personal fortune at almost $68 billion.

It seems that Gates has been too busy working on charitable issues with his wife Melinda to add to his fortune recently. Slim, however, once derided Gates and fellow philanthropist and investment guru Warren Buffett for giving away so much of their wealth, reportedly saying: “Poverty is not solved with donations… Building businesses does more for society than going around like Santa Claus.”