bajamigo
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Here he is---a great contributor to Mexican welfare-Robin Hood in Reverse.
Carlos Slim's Embarrassment of Riches
Wednesday, Jul. 11, 2007 By TIM PADGETT Carlos Slim Helu
Susana Gonzalez / AFP / GettyArticle ToolsPrintEmailReprints Carlos Slim isn't just Mexico's richest man — he possesses an astronomical 8% of the
country's GDP. So it's not surprising that Eduardo Garcia, one of Mexico's most respected business journalists and the editor-founder of the online
financial publication Sentido Comun (Common Sense), last year started a quarterly feature called Slim Watch. It tracks the telecom baron's swelling
fortune as well as his companies' alleged monopolistic practices. And this month Slim Watch claims to make it official: Slim, 67, has now passed
Microsoft founder Bill Gates as the world's richest man.
Related
Why Not All of Mexico Is Happy for Carlos Slim
The billionaire is set to take Bill Gates' position as the world's richest person, but is he doing enough for the poor?
Earlier this year, Forbes Magazine reported that Slim, at $53 billion, had surpassed investment guru Warren Buffett as No. 2, but still behind Gates
and his $56 billion. Since then, however, the rising value of stock in Slim-controlled giants like Telmex, Mexico's largest telephone company, America
Movil, Latin America's largest cell phone company, as well as numerous other holdings — from retail to offshore drilling rigs — have raised Slim's
wealth to almost $63 billion, Garcia reports. "My numbers are much higher than Forbes'," Garcia concedes, adding that he would also put Gates' current
fortune at $59 billion. "But based on what is publicly traded in Mexico, I'm certain this is an accurate calculation [of Slim's wealth]." Forbes has
not yet said if it will revise its list as a result of Garcia's report.
Garcia's math has also grabbed the attention of federal regulators in Mexico, who finally have a substantive antitrust law at their disposal to pursue
companies suspected of monopolistic market control — a chronic bane of the Mexican economy. The Federal Competition Commission has announced that it
will soon begin an investigation into whether Telmex, which has about 90% of Mexico's landline market, and America Movil, which has more than
three-fourths of the country's wireless subscribers, are stifling competition in an industry that is the linchpin of any 21st-century economy.
Sanctions could include stiffer regulation that would curb any anti-competitive practices: Telmex, for example, has been accused by potential rivals
in the past of thwarting competition by charging especially high interconnectivity fees.
Telmex and America Movil deny they've engaged in any monopolistic practices and have pledged that the commission's probe will bear that out. And Slim,
to his credit, has made certain concessions of late, such as agreeing not to expand into cable television until Telmex allowed competitors to hook up
to its telecom network. But critics say the tougher scrutiny of Slim is long overdue. "Mexicans on the one hand are rightly proud that we have such a
talented businessman with such a keen mind," says Garcia. "But nobody feels proud of the awesome wealth disparity that he represents." Mexico has more
billionaires than Switzerland, but almost half its population of 108 million people lives in poverty.
Slim, the son of Lebanese Christian immigrants, started his financial ascent by forming his own brokerage firm when he was in his early 20s. He
branched out shrewdly and prodigiously, buying up a dizzying array of businesses that he stuffed into his Grupo Carso holding company. The door to
superwealth was opened in 1990 when Telmex, then the government telephone monopoly, was privatized: a Slim-led international investor group bought it
for $1.7 billion, and today it's worth almost $40 billion. America Movil is worth almost three times as much. But Garcia charges, Slim's inordinate
dominance has meant that, according to the Paris-based Organization of Economic Cooperation & Development (OECD), Mexico's telecom customers pay
some of the highest rates in the world. "If not for those rates," Garcia insists, "Mexican businesses would have generated better profits and could
have paid their workers better. Mexico would have been a more efficient economy."
Still Garcia and other Mexico business watchers agree that Slim has just done what any tycoon would do — and that the real blame lies with the Mexican
government's notorious indulgence of monopolies. President Felipe Calderon was elected last year on a platform that included cracking down on those
economic behemoths. Meanwhile, all the talk about the Competition Commission's upcoming probe has sent Telmex's share price tumbling more than 5% in
recent days on the Mexico stock exchange, the Bolsa. If the slide continues, Slim could find himself No. 2 again.
[Edited on 7-12-2007 by bajamigo]
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bajamigo
Super Nomad
Posts: 1218
Registered: 6-17-2006
Location: Punta Banda, BC
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Mood: hubimos llegado
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I meant to add that with a mere dozen of these guys, Mexico would be quite the limited partnership.
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Baja Bernie
`Normal` Nomad Correspondent
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Bajamigo
Suppose Slim would be supportive of North American Union??
My smidgen of a claim to fame is that I have had so many really good friends. By Bernie Swaim December 2007
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