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Carlos Slim beats Gates to be world’s richest man
Mexican goes to top of Forbes rich list on back of his America Movil holding
For the first time in 16 years, a non-American has topped the Forbes Rich List. He is Carlos Slim, the Mexican telecom billionaire whose wealth is estimated by Forbes to be $53.5 billion. He overtakes Bill Gates, but only just: the Microsoft founder's fortune is reckoned to be $53 billion, despite his increasing philanthropy.
Slim's fortune increased over the past year by $18.5bn, mainly because shares in America Movil, Latin America's biggest mobile phone operator, in which he owns as $23bn stake, were up 35 per cent. The little matter of a $250m investment to help out the New York Times last January barely dented his fortune.
Arturo Elias, a spokesman for Slim's Telmex group, refused to confirm the Forbes estimate, saying they did not "waste their time" on such calculations. But he still welcomed the news. "These numbers come from the price of the stock of the companies so we're happy that investors are confident about Mexico, confident about Latin America and confident about our companies," he said.
Slim, now 70, has handed over day-to-day operations to three sons and various business partners but remains actively involved. He is known for being far from ostentatious and for aggressive investments at times of crisis.
He is said to have learned his skills at a young age when his father, a Lebanese immigrant to Mexico, gave each of his children a savings book and taught them to manage their income and expenses. He made much of his money from successfully speculating on the stock market, for example, buying Apple shares when they were $17: they are now $200 each.
He is not a philanthropist on the scale of Bill and Melinda Gates and actively opposes such charitable giving. He told USA Today: "Gates has to study how he can [fight poverty] in the same way that Microsoft... succeeded in business, because charity has not solved the problem.
"It's based on my conviction that poverty is not fought with donations, charity or even public spending, but that you fight it with health, education and jobs."
Despite such pronouncements, Slim has invested about $10bn in various projects, from health to sports, in Mexico and other Latin American countries.
THE FORBES RICH LIST - TOP TEN
1. Carlos Slim, Mexican, age 70. Telecoms and media. $53.5bn.
2. Bill Gates, American, age 54. Microsoft founder. $53bn.
3. Warren Buffett, American, age 79. Investor, Berkshire Hathaway.
$47bn.
4. Mukesh Ambani, Indian, age 52. Oil and gas. $29bn.
5. Lakshmi Mittal, Indian (resides UK), age 59. Steel. $28.7bn.
6. Lawrence Ellison, American, age 65. Founder of Oracle. $28bn.
7. Bernard Arnault, French, age 61. Louis Vuitton Moet Hennessy. $27.5bn.
8. Eike Batista, Brazilian, age 53. Mining and oil. $27.0bn.
9. Amancio Ortega, Spanish, age 74. Investor and fashion magnate. $25.0bn.
10. Karl Albrecht, German, age 90. Owner of Aldi. $23.5bn.
