Carlos Slim Helú is an exceptional Mexican baron that has accomplished unprecedented business success in Latin America. He is the first Latin American billionaire as well as the first tycoon from an emerging market to top the annual ranking of billionaires compiled by Forbes. In fact, his grip on the Mexican economy is gigantic with incursion in several industries including telecom, retail, foodservice, engineering contracting, oil-field services, auto-parts manufacturing, power transmission parts manufacturing, construction materials, cement, concessions, banking, insurance, mining, hospitality and real estate development. Altogether, the Mexican billionaire gives direct employment to over 300,000 people throughout Latin America and the companies he controls are responsible for a good chunk of economic activity in Mexico. Likewise, the Mexican tycoon’s wealth amounts to nearly 18% of the entire stock market capitalization of Mexico, over 2% of Mexico’s household wealth at a value hovering $ 4 trillion from estimates done recently and over 6% of its GDP. Accordingly, quite a feat in itself, this level of wealth concentration is currently unparalleled anywhere in the world and reminiscent of the Gilded Age in America when captains of industry, often times called robber barons by some, exerted great influence over the American economy while led by the late John D. Rockefeller Sr. Similarly, inequality and wealth concentration run deep in Latin America and Mexico is not the exception. On the contrary, Carlos Slim stands out after being the most notorious example during the entire history of the region. As a result, authorities in Mexico have begun to take notice by enforcing antitrust legislation in order to curb the clout Carlos Slim has over the national telecom industry. Indeed, if we remember correctly, he won the auction to buy a protected telecom services monopoly in Mexico and rapidly upgraded technology thereafter along with the implementation of intelligent marketing strategies while increasing efficiency and expanding services wisely across Latin America. Overall, this maneuver alone is what propelled him forward enabling him to top the Forbes’ Billionaires List for four consecutive years beginning in 2010.
Moreover, to make a long story short, Carlos Slim inherited his business acumen from his immigrant father Don Julián Slim Haddad, a Maronite Lebanese Christian in Mexico who established with his brother José a dry goods store containing imported items for sale financed with letters of credit and located in the downtown of Mexico City. This store was called “La Estrella de Oriente” or “The Orient Star” when translated to English and it was right there at an early age that Carlos Slim developed his interest and skills in business overseeing the accounting of the store. He also invested some of his cash proceeds in Mexican stocks while employed part-time at The Orient Star. Soon after, he enrolled at the prestigious UNAM university in Mexico, obtaining a Civil Engineering degree while teaching algebra and linear programming on the side. Consequently, although not quite a self-made businessman himself, he has been a prolific empire builder from the beginning. The reason he is not quite self-made is because he inherited from his father after the passing of the elder in 1953 four properties in Polanco which is the premier business district of Mexico City. In fact, he redeveloped the four properties erecting buildings in all of them while occupying an apartment in one of them after marrying and having children with his now deceased wife Soumaya Domit Gemayel. This was around in the year of 1965 when he began developing huge parcels of prime real estate after founding and backing three property developers and two lessors of construction equipment. He also invested in domestic stocks on the side through his own broker-dealer known as Inversora Bursátil S.A. de C.V.
By 1976 Carlos Slim had a solid track-record developing real estate after having built properties amounting to an extension of approximately two million square meters worth of finished construction in some of the best and sought-after locations in Mexico City. Likewise, it was around this time that he began buying distressed listed companies in whole or in part and turning them around accordingly to later flip them at a profit keeping many of them in his own portfolio while financing the initial acquisitions by liquidating his vast real estate holdings. The most important of these acquisitions was a cigarette maker known as Cigarros La Tabacalera Mexicana S.A. de C.V., better known by its abbreviation as CIGATAM, in 1981. Accordingly, Carlos Slim was able to use the strong cash flow from CIGATAM to fund part of his hefty acquisition spree. Altogether, this acquisition spree having begun earlier in 1965 while reaching high gear in 1976 included two bottling companies, two tire makers, two paper companies, a packaging enterprise, an aluminum smelter, a cigarette company, a confectionary concern, a flooring tiles business, a construction aggregates enterprise, a brass profiles maker, a copper wire manufacturer, a petrochemical plant, an insurance firm, mining interests, a railroad, hotels, discount stores, department stores, music stores, restaurants, pastry shops and coffee shops, all of them trading in Mexico with many of them at a discount to intrinsic value in the late 1970s and all throughout the 1980s.
Furthermore, the biggest feat Carlos Slim has accomplished is winning the auction to buy control of the national telecom carrier back in 1990 known as Teléfonos de México S.A.B. de C.V., commonly known as Telmex, during Mexico’s biggest privatization on record. This privatization has brought the clever Mexican entrepreneur enormous riches increasing his fortune exponentially since then. Initially, a wireline telecom services monopoly, Carlos Slim upgraded technology by injecting capital at the carrier soon after adding wireless telecom services along the way including broadband internet and Cable TV afterwards. On the other hand, he bought out his partners after the privatization including Southwestern Bell Corporation, now part of AT&T Corporation, and France Telecom S.A. In fact, the consortium won the auction for 20.4% of the newly issued common shares and 51% of its voting rights paying $ 1.757 billion for control of the telecom carrier in question. Carlos Slim’s slice of the transaction was $ 426 million representing an economic interest of 5.8% financed with a loan from the acquired company itself for a term of six months at 10% interest. He then later repaid the loan in full after receiving a sizable special dividend from the company itself minimizing his own outlay in the deal. From here, Carlos Slim aggressively expanded wireless telecom services regionwide becoming the undisputed leader of the industry nowadays in Latin America through innovative marketing strategies consisting of prepaid plans while reaching nearly 280 million paying subscribers. In addition, he also consolidated his growing shareholding in the company through dividend reinvestment plans and outright purchases in the open market achieving majority economic control. Today, the giant telecom multinational known as América Móvil S.A.B. de C.V. is the crown-jewel of Carlos Slim’s empire after being responsible for at least half his net worth of over $ 80 billion according to Forbes. Similarly, the company offers attractive bundles in some of its regional markets including Mexico and Brazil. By the same token, the telecom multinational operates fixed wireless networks using 2G technology in its markets while presently upgrading to 3G in many of them.
To conclude, Carlos Slim’s empire comprises voting and economic control over nine companies with most of them being blue chips in the Mexican market, all of them trading in Mexico as well. These companies are América Móvil S.A.B. de C.V., Grupo Carso S.A.B. de C.V., Grupo Sanborns S.A. de C.V., Grupo Financiero Inbursa S.A.B. de C.V., Minera Frisco S.A.B. de C.V., Inmuebles Carso S.A. de C.V., Elementia Materiales S.A.B. de C.V., Fortaleza Materiales S.A.B. de C.V. and Impulsora del Desarrollo y el Empleo en America Latina S.A.B. de C.V. All of these companies are led by people close to the Mexican entrepreneur including his three sons and two sons-in-law. In fact, the crown-jewel of Mr. Slim’s empire, the telecom multinational known as América Móvil S.A.B. de C.V., has his eldest son Carlos Slim Domit as its Chairman and Daniel Hajj Aboumrad, Mr. Slim’s son-in-law, as its CEO. He also owns 8% of the New York Times Company Corporation, around 4% of AT&T Corporation, 2% of BlackRock Corporation and an important shareholding in the Spanish commercial bank known as CaixaBank S.A. In addition, although Carlos Slim hasn’t signed the Giving Pledge, he is active in philanthropy after backing three charitable foundations, one foundation restoring and preserving Spanish colonial buildings in the Historic Center of Mexico City and a museum named after his deceased wife with a modern and expensive design housing the largest collection of Auguste Rodin’s sculptures outside of France as well as Mexican art including pre-Hispanic works and paintings by old and modern masters. Carlos Slim’s three daughters, on the other hand, keep themselves busy running his philanthropic endeavors. Likewise, his two biggest foundations, known as Fundación Carlos Slim and Fundación Telmex Telcel, are funded with endowments of $ 3.5 billion and $ 1.5 billion respectively coming entirely from the pockets of Mr. Slim himself. Moreover, Carlos Slim has befriended many important global personalities including the former American President Bill Clinton and the former Spanish Prime Minister Felipe González among others. Nevertheless, the two best friends of the Mexican baron from childhood are Juan Antonio Pérez Simón and Ignacio Cobo González. The former is a Spaniard residing in Mexico who has done parallel smaller investments in many of Mr. Slim’s deals keeping a low-profile instead while building a fortune in the process after owning the most expensive collection of paintings in private hands according to Paris Match. Ignacio Cobo González, on the other hand, owns the real estate of many of the hotels operated and managed by Mr. Slim’s company known as OSTAR Grupo Hotelero S.A.B. de C.V., a wholly-owned subsidiary of Inmuebles Carso. In sum, Carlos Slim Helú has defied his critics when they complain about the size of his fortune in an underdeveloped country where roughly half of its nationals remain poor. On the contrary, he is by far the most successful businessman Latin America has ever seen and the most prominent member of the Maronite Lebanese diaspora, Mr. Slim’s mother was also of Maronite Lebanese Christian parentage herself.