The son of a Lebanese immigrant with a passion for Bonsai trees, Mr Slim made his fortune in the 1990 privatisation of Telmex, Mexico’s state telephone monopoly. Since then, however, he has capitalised on Mexico’s central location in the Americas to build a business empire that cashes in on the wealth of the north and the growth potential of the south.
Through America Móvil, Telmex’s cell phone spin-off, Mr Slim is now the biggest mobile operator in Latin America, with 100 million subscribers. Forays into the US have had him holding substantial stakes in various US corporates, including MCI (he sold his 13% stake last year to Verizon), CompUSA and Saks Fifth Avenue.
Rarely a week goes by without a new venture being announced – whether it is a $560m investment in Peru’s mobile sector or the launch of a budget airline – but day-to-day management of both Telmex and the conglomerate he controls, Grupo Carso, have long since passed on to his sons. Instead, Mr Slim makes speeches about how “fighting poverty is a very good investment” and a promise, in September, to match, dollar for dollar, any charitable donations made in health, education and other social programmes in his country. Like Mr Gates and Mr Buffett, Mr Slim is firmly among the echelons of the super-rich who have moved beyond making money and are now more focused on giving it away.
