Carlos Slim Helú (Carso Group, América Móvil)
Introduction
Carlos Slim Helú (Mexico City; January 28, 1940) is a Mexican business magnate, investor and philanthropist. He is the 19th richest man in the world, as he owns assets amounting to 100 billion dollars,[1][2] which represents around 6% of Mexico's gross domestic product and makes him the richest person in Mexico and Latin America.[3] Between 2010 and 2013 he was the richest person in the world according to Forbes magazine.[4].
Slim's corporate conglomerate covers numerous industries and services, notably telecommunications in various countries in America, although it also extends to manufacturing, transportation, construction, the real estate sector, chain stores, the financial sector, energy, mining, health, sports and media.[5][6].
Biography
Son of Julián Slim Haddad (born Khalil Salim Haddad Aglamaz) and Linda Helú Atta, both Maronite Christians from Lebanon,[7][8][9] Carlos Slim Helú graduated as a civil engineer from the National Autonomous University of Mexico, where he presented the thesis Applications of Linear Programming in Civil Engineering, and also taught algebra and linear programming at the same university.[10].
At the beginning of the eighties and in the midst of a crisis that paralyzed Mexico and with historic capital flight, Slim and his group made heavy investments in the country, and acquired several companies.[11].
Carlos Slim's activity has been diversifying into several sectors. In 1997 he acquired shares in Apple Inc., just before the launch of the iMac, which managed to multiply his fortune.[12].
In 1997 it acquired Prodigy, an American Internet provider. Carlos Slim managed to make this company a powerful server of various Internet services until reaching an alliance with MSN, launching a portal "Portal (Internet)") in Spanish together with Microsoft.
On September 10, 2008, it bought 6.4% of the American newspaper The New York Times, that is, 9.1 million shares, worth approximately $123 million. According to Slim, this was a strictly financial move. With this shareholding he became the company's third largest shareholder, after the Ochs-Sulzberger family, who have maintained share control of the Times since 1898, and the hedge fund Harbinger Capital Partners.
In 2012, his company Grupo Carso became a majority shareholder (35% of the shares) of the Spanish soccer team Real Oviedo[14] and 30% of the Mexican soccer teams Club León and Club de Fútbol Pachuca.[15].