Carlos Slim Helú born January 28, 1940 is a Lebanese-Mexican Business Magnate and philanthropist who has at various times been noted as the richest person in the world. He is the chairman and CEO of telecommunications companies Telmax and América Móvil and has extensive holdings in other Mexican companies through his conglomerate, Grupo Carso SAB, as well as business interests elsewhere in the world.
América Móvil, which at 2010 was Latin America’s largest mobile-phone carrier, accounted for around US$49 billion of his wealth by the end of 2010. His corporate holdings at the end of 2010 have been estimated at US$70 billion. Earlier in that year he had been announced to be the wealthiest person in the world by Forbes, with a net worth of around US$53.5bn. This was a position which he had previously held in 2007 when his net worth had been estimated at $68bn, approximately 7% of Mexico's GDP.
BACKGROUND
Slim was born in Mexico City, Mexico. In 1902, his father, Julián Slim Haddad, emigrated from Lebanon to Mexico at the age of 14; at the time he did not speak a single word of Spanish. It was not uncommon for Lebanese children to be sent abroad before they reached the age of 15 because they could thus avoid being conscripted into the army of the Ottoman Empire. At the time of his arrival, three of his older brothers were already living in Mexico
Linda Helú, the mother of Carlos, had been born in Mexico, at Parral, Chihuahua. She was the child of Lebanese immigrants who had entered the country in the late 19th century and founded one of the first magazines for the Lebanese-Mexican community, using an Arabic printing press they had brought with them.
In 1911, Julián established a dry goods store called La Estrella del Oriente (The Star of the Orient) and by 1921 had purchased real estate in the flourishing commercial district of Mexico City. These enterprises became the source of considerable wealth. In August 1926, Julián Slim and Linda Helú married and went on to have six children, with Carlos the fifth. Julián, who had been influential in the Lebanese-Mexican business community, died in 1953.
DEVELOPMENT OF BUSINESS INTEREST
Slim and his siblings were taught basic business practises by their father and at the age of 12 Slim had bought shares in a Mexican bank. He went on to study engineering at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, whilst simultaneously teaching algebra and linear programming there. In 1965 he incorporated Inversora Bursátil and then bought Jarritos del Sur. In 1966, already worth US$40 million, he founded Inmobiliaria Carso. Three months he later married Soumaya Domit Gemayel (the Carso name derives from the first three letters of Carlo and the first two of Soumaya) and they remained married until her death in 1999.
Construction, real estate and mining businesses were the focus of his early career. By 1972 he had established or acquired a further seven businesses in these categories, including one which rented construction equipment. In 1976 he branched out by buying a 60% interest in a printing business and in 1980 he consolidated his business interests by forming Grupo Galas as the parent company of a conglomerate that had interests in industry, construction, mining, retail, food and tobacco.
In 1982 the Mexican economy, which had a substantial reliance on oil exports, contracted rapidly as the price of oil fell and interest rates rose worldwide. Banks and other businesses were nationalised, crippled or collapsed and the peso was devalued. At this time, and during the period of recovery to 1985, Slim invested heavily. He bought outright, or a large percentage of, numerous Mexican businesses, including Reynolds Aluminio, General Popo (General Tire's trading name in Mexico), Bimex hotels and Sanborns, a food retailer. He also acquired a 40% interest in the Mexican arm of British American Tobacco and 50% of that of Hershey's. He moved into financial services as well, buying Seguros de México and creating from it, along with other purchases such asFianzas La Guardiana and Casa de Bolsa Inbursa, the Grupo Financiero Inbursa, Many of these acquisitions were financed by the cash flows from Cigitam, a tobacco business which he bought early in the economic downturn.
He added the Nacrobre group of companies – which trade in copper and aluminium products – in 1986, along with a chemicals business, Química Fluor, and others.
In 1990 the Grupo Carso was floated as a public company, with share placements initially in Mexico and then worldwide.
Later in 1990 he acted in concert with France Télécom and Southwestern Bell Corporation in order to buy landline telephony company Telmex from the Mexican government. By 2006, 90 percent of the telephone lines in Mexico are operated by Telmex, whilst his mobile telephony company, Telcel, operates almost eighty percent of all the country's cellphones. Telcel was created out of the Radiomóvil Dipsa company. These operations have financed Slim's foreign expansion. Slim was once MCI Inc.'s largest shareholder, with 13% ownership. On April 11, 2005, The Wall Street Journal announced that he had sold his stake in MCI to Verizon Communications.
In 1991 he acquired Hoteles Calinda (today, OSTAR Grupo Hotelero) and in 1993 increased his stakes in General Tire and Grupo Aluminio to the poiknt where he had a majority interest.
In 1996 Grupo Carso was split into three companies – Carso Global Telecom, Grupo Carso and Invercorporación – and the following year Slim bought the Mexican arm of Sears Roebuck.
1999 saw Slim expanding his business interests beyond Latin America. He set up Telmex USA and also acquired a stake in Tracfone, a US cellular telephone company. At the same time he established Carso Infraestructura y Construcción, S. A. (CICSA) as a part of the Grupo Carso, this being a construction and engineering company.It was also at this time that he had heart surgery and subsequently passed on much of the day-to-day involvement in the businesses to his children and their spouses.
América Telecom, the holding company for América Móvil was incorporated in 2000. It took stakes in various cellular telephone companies outside Mexico, including the Brazilian ATL and Telecom Americas concerns, Techtel in Argentina, and others in Guatemala and Ecuador. In subsequent years there was further investment in this sphere, including deals involving companies in Colombia, Nicaragua, Peru, Chile, Honduras and El Salvador. 2000 also saw a venture with Microsoft which led to the start of the Spanish T1msn portal, later renamed ProdigyMSN.
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. 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.
PERSONAL WEALTH
On August 4, 2007, The Wall Street Journal ran 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". On March 29, 2007, Slim surpassed Warren Buffett as the world's second richest person with an estimated net worth of $53.1 billion compared to Buffet's $52.4 billion. 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.
On August 8, 2007, Fortune reported that Slim had overtaken Gates as the world's richest man. Slim's estimated fortune soared to $59 billion, based on the value of his public holdings at the end of July. Gates' net worth was estimated to be at least $58 billion.
On March 5, 2008, Forbes ranked Slim as the world's second-richest person, behind Warren Buffett and ahead of Bill Gates. On March 11, 2009, Forbes ranked Slim as the world's third-richest person, behind Gates and Buffett and ahead of Lawrence Ellison.
On March 10, 2010, Forbes once again reported that Slim had overtaken Gates as the world's richest man, with a net worth of $53.5 billion. Gates and Buffett now have a net worth of $53 billion and $47 billion respectively. He was the first Mexican to top the list. It was the first time in 16 years that the person on top of the list was not from the United States. It was also the first time the person at the top of the list was from an "emerging economy."
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