Carlos Slim

At 84 years old, Carlos Slim has this physical status:

Business career

Slim began his career as a stock trader in Mexico, often working 14 hours per day after graduating from university in 1961. Slim's private investments in 1965 were worth US$400,000, enabling him to open Inversora Burstil. Grupo Carso, his eventual conglomerate, also began laying the financial foundations for his eventual conglomerate. He acquired Jarritos del Sur, a Mexican bottling and soft drink firm, in 1965. In 1966, he founded Inmuebles Carso, a real estate company and holding company, worth US$40 million.

Slim's debuting business ventures were in the construction, soft drink, printing, real estate, bottling, and mining industries. He later extended his operations and commercial interests into a variety of industries, including auto parts, aluminum, electronics, fiber, copper and metal extraction, paper and carton manufacturing, automotive, apparel, apparel, wholesale, and financial services; Simult's Grupo Financiero Inbursa sells insurance and manages pension plans for millions of ordinary Mexicans (Slim's Grupo Financiero Inbursa). He had established or acquired a further seven companies in these categories by 1972, including a construction equipment rental firm. In 1980, he consolidated his company's interests by forming Grupo Galas as the parent company of a conglomerate of industrial manufacturing, mining, retail, and tobacco.

The Mexican economy shrank at a rapid pace in 1982. Slim began investing heavily and bought several Mexican flagship companies at depressed valuations as many banks were struggling and foreign investors were pulling back on investing and scurrying. Slim's company involved a simple tactic, which requires purchasing a company and holding it for its cash balance, or eventually selling the stake at a higher price, thus netting the capital gains as well as reinvesting the initial principal into a new one. In addition, Grupo Carso's corporate conglomerate structure enables Slim to purchase multiple stakes in a multitude of industries, effectively ending the overall conglomerate's almost recession-proof in the event that one or two main industry sectors of the Mexican economy do not fare well.

Slim invested heavily in penny-on-dollar currency reversing the Mexican economic crisis prior to its recovery in 1985. He bought all or a substantial part of a number of Mexican companies, including Empresas Frisco, a Mexican aluminum firm and chemical manufacturer, Industrias Nacobre, a Mexican aluminum firm, Compa Hulera (Mexico's biggest tire manufacturer), and Bimex hotels, a hotel chain, as well as a Hotel chain. He also became the majority shareholder of Sanborn Hermanos, a prominent Mexican food store, gift shop, and restaurant chain. Slim converted Seguros de México's insurance company Seguros de México into Seguros Inbursa, a US$13 million company that later merged the Mexican insurance company Seguros de México. After four spinoffs, Seguros' value increased by $1.5 billion by 2007. He also took a 40 percent and 50 percent stake in the Mexican arms of British American Tobacco and The Hershey Company, respectively. He purchased significant chunks of Denny's and Firestone Tires. He formed Grupo Financiero Inbursa, a financial services firm, out of Seguros de México, Fianzas La Guardiana, and Casa de Bolsa Inbursa. Any of these company acquisitions were funded by Cigatam, a Mexican tobacco retailer that he purchased early in the 1980s Mexican economic recession.

Slim, a copper sheet manufacturing company that manufactures, markets, and distributes copper and copper alloy products, as well as a chemical firm called Qumica Fluor, acquired Nacobre, a copper alloy manufacturer that manufactures, markets, and distributes copper and copper alloy products in 1988.

Slim earned windfall in the early 1990s, when the Mexican government began privatizing its telecommunications industry. He acquired Telmex, a Mexican government landline telephone operator, from Grupo Carso. Grupo Carso was first registered in Mexico and then internationally in 1990. Grupo Carso also bought a majority interest in Porcelanite, a tile manufacturing company established in 1990.

When Mexico began privatizing national industries, Slim acted in concert with France Télécom and Southwestern Bell Corporation to purchase Telmex from the Mexican government. Slim was a pioneer investment backer in Telmex as the company's cash flows and revenues eventually generated the bulk of his private wealth. Telmex owned and operated 90 percent of Mexico's phone lines, and his telecommunications firm, Telcel, which was founded out of the Radiomóvil Dipsa group, owned nearly 80% of all of the country's cellphones by 2006.

He purchased Hoteles Calinda (now OSTAR Grupo Hotelero), a hotel chain, and Grupo Aluminio, an aluminum profile and aluminum manufacturer, to the point where he had a majority interest in the company in 1991.

Slim's conglomerate group Grupo Carso was divided into three separate entities in 1996: Carso Global Telecom, Grupo Carso, and Invercorporación. Slim bought the Mexican arm of Sears Roebuck in the following year.

Slim began expanding his company outside of Latin America in 1999. Despite the fact that the majority of his investments remained in Mexico, he began targeting the United States for foreign investment.

Slim made news on the American business scene in 2003 as he began buying major amounts in a variety of large US retailers, such as Barnes & Noble, OfficeMax, Office Depot, Circuit City, Borders, and CompUSA. Slim's international commercial expansion outside of Mexico was aided in large part by a running joke in Mexican company circles, where "there was nothing left to buy in Mexico." He founded Telmex USA and also purchased a stake in Tracfone, an American cellular phone operator. Slim established Carso Infrastructura Construcción, S. A., in the current period. CICSA (CIRCA) is a non-profit construction and engineering company within Grupo Carso. Slim underwent heart surgery and then moved on a substantial portion of his day-to-day business commitment to his children and their spouses during the same year.

América Telecom, América Móvil's holding company, was established in 2000. Telmex also spun off its international celluar phone division for a $15 billion listing of America Movil SA on the New York Stock Exchange, which also spun off its celluar phone division. Telmex has acquired significant stakes of various international cellular phone operators outside of Mexico, including those in Brazil and Telecom Americas, as well as others in Guatemala and Ecuador. The company continued to invest in Latin America in the years to come, with companies in Colombia, Nicaragua, Peru, Chile, Honduras, and El Salvador, as well as a joint venture with Microsoft called Tlmsn, a Spanish-language web portal.

Slim invested in Volaris, a Mexican airline, and el Impulsora del Desarrollo en América del Empleo, a Mexican construction and civil engineering company that mainly engaged in not-for-profit infrastructure development in 2005. IDEAL has been winning three infrastructure contracts since 2006, yet a slew of other Mexican and Spanish construction firms is still fighting fierce rivalry.

Slim sold a significant portion of his equity to Philip Morris for US$1.1 billion in 2007, after having amassed a 51% interest in the Cigatam tobacco company. Slim sold his entire Porcelanite stake for US$800 million in 2007. He licensed the Saks brand and opened the Mexican arm of Saks Fifth Avenue in Santa Fe, Mexico. Slim's businesses' estimated worth in the United States during the same year was worth $1150 billion. Grupo Carso declared on December 8, 2007 that the remaining 103 CompUSA retail stores would be liquidated or sold, putting an end to the struggling business, although CompUSA's information technology division, located in Dallas, Texas (U.S. Corporate Office) and Danville, Virginia, respectively. Telvista has five centers in Mexico (three in Tijuana, one center in Mexicali, and one in México City). Slim became the Honorary Lifetime Chairman of the company after 28 years of corporate involvement.

Slim owned a 64% interest in the New York Times Company, a major American newspaper publisher, in 2008. Slim's stake in the company soared to 8% by 2012. Slim's interest in the Times increased to 16.8% of the company's Class A shares on January 20, 2015, making him the company's largest shareholder. The New York Times Company's Class A shares are available to purchase by the public and give the company less power over it than Class B shares, which are privately owned. Slim owned 17.4% of the company's Class A shares, but none of the company's Class B shares, according to the company's 2016 annual reports.

Slim sold the Leon games to Telemundo, the American terrestrial television network, and Fox Sports in Mexico and the rest of Latin America, as well as the website www.mediotiempo.com. The games are also available on the internet through Telmex's UNO TV. Slim has worked with broadcasting sports from Mexico to larger markets, such as the United States. América Móvil won the broadcast rights for the Olympic Games in Sochi 2014 and the Brazil 2016 for Latin America in March 2012.

Slim, along with American television presenter Larry King, established Ora TV, an on-demand digital television network that produces and broadcasts television shows including Larry King Now, Politicking with Larry King, Recessionista, and Jesse Ventura Uncensored.

Slim bought 30% stakes in Pachuca and León, two Mexican soccer teams, in September 2012, through his telecommunications company America Movil. He bought all of the shares of Estudiantes Tecos, the second division team. Slim has also closed down company contracts for the Leon soccer team's television rights to games. Slim is currently ranked in divisions I, TV, and cable television as well as placing him in league with Televisa and TV Azteca, two television companies with rights to the majority of Mexican soccer's first division, after his group America Movil purchased 30 percent of the team along with transmission rights because he doesn't have the privilege to broadcast television or cable television as well as placing him in competition with Televisa and TV Azteca.

Slim's company America Movil invested US$40 million in Shazam, a British commercial mobile phone identification service, for an undisclosed share of ownership. America Movil formed a joint venture with the company to support the company's expansion into television and television, as well as the enhancement of the audio recognition service in Latin America.

Slim invested US$60 million in Mobli, an Israeli startup that deals with people and communities, in November 2013.

Slim's private equity fund, Sinca Inbursa, sold its interest in the Mexican pharmaceutical firm Landsteiner Scientific in December 2013. Slim had acquired a 27.5 percent interest in the company in June 2008, which represented 6.6% of Sinca's investment portfolio. The private equity fund's investments are mainly concentrated in the transportation and infrastructure industries, and the fund had a total market cap of 5.152 billion pesos at the end of 2012.

Slim took over Telekom Austria, Austria's top telecommunications company, which operates telcos in countries such as Bulgaria, Croatia, and Belarus, as part of a 10-year deal. Slim's first profitable company merger in Europe was in Europe. OIAG's 28 percent ownership is mixed with Slim's 27% ownership in a syndicated holding company. America Movil will invest up to 1 billion euros (US$1.38 billion) into the company, which it sees as a "platform for expansion into central and eastern Europe" after the company's mandatory public sale and investment into minority shareholders. Labor activists canceled attending the OIAG's board meeting for 12 hours, blaming a lack of concrete job guarantees.

Grupo Carso unveiled Claro Musica, a Latin American version of iTunes and Spotify, in January 2015. Slim, alongside his son, has increased their corporate presence in Mexico's music market, particularly in the retail music market since 2013. Mixup, Mexico's most profitable retail music store that includes a chain of 117 stores, was also worth more than $320 million in 2014.

Slim made his presence in Spain in March 2015 by buying stakes in several struggling Spanish companies while researching potential mergers around Europe. Inmobiliaria Carso, Slim's investment company, has announced that it would buy a stake in Bankia, which complements Slim's acquisition of Realia, a Spanish real estate company, in which Slim is the second largest shareholder holding a 25 percent stake, behind Fomento de Construcciones y Contratas, a Spanish construction company in which Slim is also a voting minority shareholder.

Slim formed Carso Oil & Gas on April 15, 2015. A study that was not published by the new company listed its earnings at 3.5 billion pesos (roughly US$230 million), was placed within 17.7 million shares. Slim remained optimistic about the company's future prospects and Mexico's burgeoning energy sector, where the state monopoly has ceased to exist, despite the fact that no one monopoly has existed since its establishment.

Slim's investment group Control Empresarial de Capitales invested in IMatchative, a software startup that ranks among the world's hedge funds, for in-depth behavioral profiles and company analysis. Limited partners pay US$30,000 per year, while hedge fund managers pay half the price and still sign up for a free version of the company's famous services.

Source

Awards

• Entrepreneurial Merit Medal of Honor in 1985 from Mexico's Chamber of Commerce.
• Commander in the Belgian Order of Leopold II
• Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement in 1994
• CEO of the year in 2003 by Latin Trade magazine
• CEO of the decade in 2004 by Latin Trade magazine
• Fundacion Telmex received in 2007 the National Sports Prize of Mexico for sports promotion
• In 2008, his philanthropy was recognized with the award of The National Order of the Cedar by the Lebanese government.
• In 2011, the Hispanic Society of America awarded Fundacion Carlos Slim the Sorolla Medal for its contribution to the arts and culture
• On 20 May 2012, Slim was awarded an honorary doctorate in public service from George Washington University.
• On 21 March 2020, he was awarded the Queen Sofía Spanish Institute Sophia Award for Excellence at an awards luncheon.