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Carlos Slim

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Carlos Slim Helú
Born (1940-01-28) January 28, 1940 (age 84)
Mexico City, Mexico
NationalityMexico Mexican
Occupation(s)Chairman and CEO, Telmex, Telcel and América Móvil

Carlos Slim Helú (born January 28, 1940) is a Mexican businessman and philanthropist who is largely focused on the telecommunications industry. He is currently the second richest person in the world with a net worth of around US$60 billion through his holdings.[1]

Slim has a substantial influence over the telecommunications industry in Mexico and much of Latin America. He controls Teléfonos de México (Telmex), Telcel and América Móvil companies. Though he maintains an active involvement in his companies, his three sons — Carlos, Marco Antonio and Patrick Slim Domit — head them on a day-to-day basis.

Early life

Slim was born in Mexico City, Mexico. His father, Julián Slim, a Lebanese Maronite Catholic, emigrated from Lebanon at the age of 14. In 1911, Julián established a dry goods store called La Estrella del Oriente (Star of the Orient) and purchased real estate in downtown Mexico City. He and his wife, also Lebanese, had six children, of whom Carlos was the youngest boy.

Slim is the surname of Carlos' father Julián, who was called Youssef Salim before moving to Mexico, upon which he changed his first name to Julián and altered his surname to Slim. He officially became Julián Slim Haddad by adding Haddad, his mother's surname, according to the Spanish-language naming customs. In Western, non-Iberian naming conventions, Carlos Slim Helú's name would be Carlos Slim.

Carlos Slim studied engineering at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México. He married Soumaya Domit, also a Lebanese-Mexican, in 1967; the couple had six children and were married for 32 years until Domit died of a kidney ailment in 1999. The youngest daughter, Johanna, is married to Arturo Elías Ayub who is a board member of some of Slim's companies.

World's second richest person

On March 5, 2008, Forbes ranked Slim as the world's second-richest person, behind Warren Buffett and ahead of Bill Gates.[1] During some parts of 2007, several major financial publications had ranked Slim as the richest person on Earth.

On August 8, 2007, Fortune reported that Slim had overtaken Gates as the world's richest man. Slim's estimated fortune soared to US$68 billion, based on the value of his public holdings at the end of July. Gates' net worth was estimated to be at least US$58 billion.[3][4]

On August 4, 2007, The Wall Street Journal run a cover story profiling Slim. The article said, "While the market value of his stake in publicly traded companies could decline at any time, at the moment he is probably wealthier than Bill Gates".[3] On March 29, 2007, Slim surpassed Warren Buffett as the world's second richest person with an estimated net worth of US$53.1 billion compared to Buffett's US$52.4 billion.[5] According to The Wall Street Journal, Slim credits part of his ability to discover investment opportunities early to the writings of his friend, futurist author Alvin Toffler.[3]

Achievements and directorships

Slim has been vice-president of the Mexican Stock Exchange and president of the Mexican Association of Brokerage Houses. He was the first president of the Latin-American Committee of the New York Stock Exchange Administration Council, and was in office from 1996 through 1998.

He was on the Board of Directors of the Altria Group (previously Philip Morris) (resigned in April 2006) and Alcatel. Slim currently sits on the Board of Directors for Philip Morris International. He was on the Board of Directors of SBC Communications until July 2004 to devote more time to the World Education & Development Fund, which focused on infrastructure, health and education projects. In 1997, just before the company introduced its iMac line, Slim bought three percent of Apple Computer's stock, which has skyrocketed over the years.

He built a Mexican financial-industrial empire, Grupo Carso, which owns, among other companies, the now bankrupt CompUSA electronic retail chain. On December 8, 2007, Grupo Carso announced that the remaining 103 CompUSA stores would be either liquidated or sold, bringing an end to the struggling company.[6] After 28 years he became the Honorary Lifetime Chairman of the business. He is also Chairman of Teléfonos de Mexico, América Móvil, and Grupo Financiero Inbursa.

Slim is said to have shown an interest in buying the Honda Formula One team.[7] Slim would overtake the billionaire owner of Force India, Vijay Mallya, to become the richest team owner in a sport famous for being a playground for the super wealthy.

Telecom leadership

Slim gained notoriety when he led a group of investors that included France Télécom and Southwestern Bell Corporation in buying Telmex and Telnor from the Mexican government in 1990 in a public tender during the presidency of Carlos Salinas. Today, 90 percent of the telephone lines in Mexico are operated by Telmex.[8] The mobile company, Telcel, which Slim also controls, operates almost eighty percent of all the country's cellphones. These operations have financed Slim's expansion abroad. Over the past five years, his wireless carrier América Móvil has bought cellphone companies across Latin America, and is now the region's dominant company, with more than 100 million subscribers.

Slim was once MCI's largest shareholder, with 13 percent ownership. On April 11, 2005, The Wall Street Journal announced that he had sold his stake in MCI to Verizon Communications of the United States.

Media

On September 10, 2008 Slim announced that he had purchased a 6.4 percent common-stock stake in The New York Times Company, making him the largest shareholder not related to the company's owners, the Sulzberger family.[9]

Then, on January 19, 2009, the financially-troubled Times Company announced that it had accepted a $250 million loan from Slim.[10] While the loan will help ease the company's cash flow problems, it does not come close to eliminating the Times Company's $1.1 billion debt.[10] The company's continuing financial problems and Slim's ongoing interest in its work, as evidenced by his two interventions in the course of five months, has led to speculation that he might be contemplating an outright takeover of the Times Company.[11] A spokesman for Slim told reporters in January 2009 that the Times loan was an investment opportunity "that makes financial sense." [12]

Impulsora del Desarrollo y el Empleo

He leads Impulsora del Desarrollo y el Empleo en America Latina SAB de CV (IDEAL), a Mexico-based company primarily engaged in infrastructure development. IDEAL is active in transportation, crude oil and gas, power, water, real estate and technology. Within the sectors the company is the concessionaire of the highways, hydroelectric plants projects, electronic toll collection systems and ports. It is also engaged in the exploration, production, transport, refinement and distribution of crude oil and gas mainly through offshore oil platforms for deep waters. Additionally, it is engaged in the construction and operation of water treatment plants, investments and development of the urban and rural properties, primarily in the commercial, health and education sectors. The company’s main subsidiaries are Desarollo de America Latina SA de CV and Promotora del Desarollo de America Latina SA de CV.

Political life

Slim is well known for giving public speeches on Mexican economy and technological underdevelopment.[13]

Philanthropy

In 2000, Slim organized the Fundación del Centro Histórico de la Ciudad de México A.C. (Mexico City Historic Downtown Foundation), whose objective is to revitalize and rescue Mexico City's historic downtown to enable more people to live, work and find entertainment in this area. He has been Chairman of the Executive Committee for the Restoration of the Historic Center since 2001.

He heads the Latin America Development Fund project, which has a budget of over $10 billion to fund cultural projects throughout Latin America. Slim, through the "Alfredo Harp Helú Foundation", gave a US$5.5 million gift to the endowment of the National Polytechnic Institute, the second largest Mexican university by enrollment and one of the most important research universities in Latin America.[14]

Awards

Slim has been awarded the Entrepreneurial Merit Medal of Honor from Mexico's Chamber of Commerce. He is a "gold patron" of the American Academy of Achievement,[15] and the Belgian government awarded him the Leopold II Commander Meda, CEO of the year in 2003 by Latin Trade magazine and one year later CEO of the decade by the same magazine.

See also

References

  1. ^ a b c Miller, Matthew (March 5 2008). "Gates No Longer World's Richest Man". Forbes. Retrieved 2008-03-05. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  2. ^ Carlos Slim Helu - Trade by Numbers
  3. ^ a b c Luhnow, David (August 4 2007). "The Secrets of the World's Richest Man". The Wall Street Journal. p. A1. Retrieved 2007-08-04. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  4. ^ Mehta, Stephanie (August 6 2007). "Carlos Slim, the richest man in the world". Fortune. Retrieved 2007-08-06. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  5. ^ Coster, Helen (April 11 2007). "Carlos Slim Helu Now World's Second-Richest Man". Forbes. Retrieved 2007-08-11. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  6. ^ "End of the Line for CompUSA". sfgate.com. December 9 2007. Retrieved 2007-12-09. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  7. ^ "Carlos Slim Eyes Honda Purchase". speedtv.com. December 22 2008. Retrieved 2008-12-22. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  8. ^ Thompson, Ginger (June 3 2006). "Prodded by the Left, Mexico's Richest Man Talks Equity". New York Times. {{cite news}}: Check date values in: |date= (help)
  9. ^ "www.paidcontent.org/entry/419-mexican-billionaire-helu-takes-stake-in-new-york-times-company/".
  10. ^ a b Eric Dash, "Mexican Billionaire Invests in Times Company," New York Times, January 19, 2009.
  11. ^ Paul Gillin, "Will Slim Bid for Times Co.?," Newspaper Death Watch, January 21, 2009.
  12. ^ Tunku Varadarajan, "Carlos Slim and the New York Times," Forbes.com, January 26, 2009.
  13. ^ Propone Carlos Slim globalizar el empleo - El Universal - Finanzas
  14. ^ http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1G1-142111379.html
  15. ^ "About the Academy: Academy Patrons" (HTML). Academy of Achievement website. Academy of Achievement. 2007. Retrieved 2007-08-06. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |coauthors= (help)
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