Cario Lopez-Mills/ AP
- Carlos Slim is the richest person in Mexico, worth an estimated $58.1 billion, according to Bloomberg’s Billionaires Index.
- The 79-year-old Mexican billionaire controls America Movil, the largest mobile-phone operator in Latin America, and holds stakes in several other publicly traded companies, including The New York Times.
- Slim also owns Sears Mexico, which is growing and opening up new stores despite the chain filing for bankruptcy in the US.
- Slim lives a surprisingly frugal lifestyle for a billionaire: He doesn’t own any yachts or planes and he’s lived in the same house for 40 years.
- Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.
Carlos Slim Helu is one of the richest self-made billionaires in the world,
As Mexico’s wealthiest man by far, Slim flies under the radar more than you might expect, considering he’s involved in hundreds of companies in Mexico, which is also known as “Slimlandia.”
Slim’s influence is far-reaching in Mexico and abroad. Bloomberg estimates Slim’s net worth to be at least $58.1 billion, but he could be worth as much as $62.3 billion, according to Forbes.
Despite his wealth, Slim lives a relatively frugal lifestyle; he’s lived in the same six-bedroom house for more than 40 years.
Here’s a look at Slim’s life and massive business empire.
Christi Danner contributed to an earlier version of this article.
Carlos Slim is worth at least $58.1 billion, making him the richest person in Mexico.
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He’s among the 10 richest people in the world.
REUTERS/Edgard Garrido
Bloomberg ranks him at No. 8 with an estimated net worth of $58.1 billion, while Forbes put him at No. 5 with an estimated net worth of $62.3 billion.
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Most of Slim’s wealth comes from his 57% stake in America Movil, the biggest mobile-phone operator in Latin America.
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He also has holdings in banking and mining …
Eloy Alonso/ Reuters
… as well as interests in the construction industry in Mexico through the family’s business, infrastructure, construction, and energy conglomerate, Grupo Carso.
REUTERS/Edgard Garrido
Slim’s son, Carlos Slim Domit, is now chairman of the board at Grupo Carso.
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Slim holds stakes in several other publicly traded companies, including CaixaBank and The New York Times.
Bloomberg estimates that Slim has raked in nearly $10 billion in dividends from his investments.
Kimberly White/Getty Images for New York Times
Slim was born to Lebanese immigrant parents in Mexico City in 1940. His father taught him to read financial documents and invest at a young age.
Slim’s father was successful in both retail and real estate, and Carlos inherited his business after his death in 1953.
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Slim holds a deep love for his country. “Mexico is so rich in culture and history, and I have always enjoyed that,” he told the Telegraph.
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Slim went to college at Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico, or UNAM, Mexico’s National Autonomous University. He studied civil engineering and graduated in 1961. Soon after, he founded his first company, Inversora Bursatil, an insurance company.
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Slim has a clear strategy for making money: He acquires struggling companies and transforms them into multibillion-dollar holdings before selling his stake at a profit. In particular, he took advantage of the Mexican debt crisis in 1982 in order to purchase many deflated companies.
We saw Slim’s strategy firsthand in the US in 2009, when he loaned $250 million to The New York Times at a 14% interest rate. Slim saw the deal as a business venture, rather than a foray into journalism.
Lucas Jackson/ Reuters
Slim first entered the international spotlight in 1991 when he appeared on Forbes’ billionaires list with a net worth of $1.7 billion. The previous year, he saw his first big success when Grupo Carso went public and led the privatization of state phone company Telmex.
In 2010, Slim surpassed Bill Gates as the richest man in the world; it was the first time in 16 years that the world’s richest man wasn’t from the US.
Eduardo Verdugo/ AP
Though Bill Gates is once again richer than Slim and Jeff Bezos reigns as the world’s richest person, Slim is the wealthiest person in Mexico by far.
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The next-richest person in Mexico is Ricardo Salinas, worth $12.8 billion, who owns the majority of two publicly traded companies: Grupo Elektra, a retail and banking conglomerate, and TV Azteca, a Spanish-language broadcaster.
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Slim’s presence is all over Mexico. As The Guardian reported, “It is sometimes hard to tell where Carlos Slim stops and Mexico City starts.”
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“He controls most of the mobile phone, landline and internet markets,” Feike De Jong wrote in the Guardian. “His telecoms company, Telmex, installed the city’s surveillance cameras. Grupo Carso, his flagship infrastructure conglomerate, runs the city’s principal water treatment plant. His bank, Inbursa, is Mexico’s.”
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Slim even owns Mexico City’s only aquarium.
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The Mexican billionaire also owns Sears Mexico. His company paid $103 million for a 60% stake in the company in 1997.
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As Sears stores shutter in the US following the company declaring bankruptcy, Sears is thriving in Mexico, growing in both locations and sales.
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Slim’s critics accuse him of being a monopolist whose practices drive prices and unemployment through the roof.
But the billionaire doesn’t let criticism bother him: “When you live for others’ opinions, you are dead,” he said. “I don’t want to live thinking about how I’ll be remembered.”
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Despite his critics, Slim states that since becoming a billionaire, he has “more activity, more responsibility, and more compromise … The compromise is the challenge of solving Mexico’s problems. I’m trying to make our country better in the areas that I can.”
Reuters
Slim says one of his biggest goals is alleviating poverty, and that it needs to happen at the institutional level. “Poverty isn’t solved with donations,” he said. “The establishment of business is more beneficial to society than going around like Santa Claus.”
Despite his wealth, Slim does not believe in conspicuous consumption — he reportedly doesn’t own any yachts or planes.
Eloy Alonso/ Reuters
Most of his money goes towards further investments in business or philanthropy, though he does have a set of hand-carved and blown Baccarat wine glasses that were owned by the previous president of Mexico.
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Tim Padgett, who interviewed Slim for Time magazine, said, “Just by looking at him, you would never know he is a billionaire.” Slim has lived in the same six-bedroom house for 40 years. He indulges in only two big luxuries: Cuban cigars and art collecting.
Slim’s home, his childhood home, and the Telmex offices are all located in Lomas de Chapultepec, a small but affluent neighborhood in Mexico City’s financial district.
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Slim purchased a mansion on Fifth Avenue in New York City for $44 million in 2010 as an investment, not a residence.
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In 2015, the mansion was put on the market for $80 million, $36 million more than what he paid for it. But in 2016, it was taken off the market with no sale recorded.
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Slim was married to his wife, Soumaya, for 32 years. She passed away in 1999 due to renal failure. The couple has six children, who will inherit Slim’s empire.
Reuters
In 1994, Slim opened the Museo Soumaya, a nonprofit art museum with free admission in Mexico City named after his late wife, Soumaya. At one point, it housed the largest private Rodin collection in the world.
After his wife’s death, rumors circulated of Slim’s subsequent romances, most famously with Queen Noor al-Hussein of Jordan. Both Soumaya and Queen Noor’s husband, King Hussein, passed away within one day of one another in 1999. Ten years later, newspaper outlets reported that Slim and the Queen of Jordan had formed a close relationship that included jet-setting around the globe and dining in secret at friends’ houses.
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Since 2004, Slim has stepped down from the boards of his three largest companies in order to focus on family, philanthropy, and his own health. Every Monday he has dinner with his children and their spouses to discuss business, and every Wednesday he has lunch with his grandchildren.
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Slim still maintains ultimate control of his companies, but he has handed over much of the responsibility and decision-making to his three sons, Carlos, Marco Antonio, and Patrick, and to his son-in-law, Arturo Elías Ayub.
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Johanna and Slim’s other daughters, Vanessa and Soumaya, are involved in the Slim family’s philanthropic endeavors as well as the arts.
AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo
Slim has said publicly that a succession plan for his company has been made, but he has not given details.
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