No Slim pickings as Mexican knocks Gates off top spot
The fortune of Helú this year reached $67.8 billion (€49.7bn), topping Gates’ net worth of $59.2bn (€43.4bn), according to the website.
It said the Mexican billionaire’s wealth rocketed past Gates on the back of very strong performance of his telecom firm, America Movil.
US-based Forbes magazine, renowned for its rankings of the world’s wealthiest individuals, updated its listings in April to rank Slim Helú as the second richest individual in the world, as he bested the legendary US investor Warren Buffett.
The Mexican financial website said Slim’s lead over Gates amounted to billions of dollars.
“Thanks to a 26.5% rise in the shares of America Movil during the second quarter, Slim, who controls a 33% interest in Latin America’s largest mobile phone company, is substantially richer than Gates,” Sentido Comun said.
“The difference between their two fortunes is around $9bn in favour of Slim,” the website claimed.
It said it had based its calculations largely on the share price movements of companies controlled by Slim.
The website said soaring performances from Slim’s other business interests had also helped propel him past Gates.
Aside from America Movil, Slim controls the Inbursa financial group and the Grupo Carso industrial firm with interests spanning retail stores, coffee shops and restaurants.
One reason for Slim’s spectacular rise might be because he is also still working.
Gates stepped aside as Microsoft chief in 2000 to devote his energies to the philanthropic foundation he runs with his wife Melinda.
Forbes in April put Slim’s wealth at a staggering $53.1bn, and said Gates was sitting on a $56bn fortune.
Slim, the son of Lebanese immigrants, has had business in his blood from his early days when he helped out in his father’s shop The Star of the Orient.
The 67-year-old started out in real estate and when he graduated from university with an engineering degree, he was already affluent enough to buy stakes in a stock brokerage and a bottling firm.
During the crippling Latin American economic crisis of the early 1980s, Slim snapped up and reformed a number of businesses, banking massive profits for Grupo Carso.
Carso gained its name from the first three letters of Slim’s name and the first two of his late wife’s, Soumaya Gemayel.
Analysts say one of Slim’s smartest and most lucrative deals occurred when he took control of Telefonos de Mexico (Telemex) in 1990 as the then government moved to privatise the sprawling monopoly.
Slim oversaw a $1.8bn investment to take over Telemex, but he then overhauled the company and expanded its services as the telecom firm became the star of the Mexican stock exchange and more than returned his investment.
1.Carlos Slim Helú €49.7bn — Telecommunications
2. Bill Gates €43.4bn — Computer software
3. Warren Buffett €38bn — Investments
4. Ingvar Kamprad €25bn — IKEA homeware
5. Lakshmi Mittal €23.6bn — Steel
6. Sheldon Adelson €20.6bn — Property
7. Bernard Arnault €19bn — Art, wine, fashion
8. Amancio Ortega €17.7bn — Fashion
9. Li Ka-Shing €17bn — Port operator, retailer
10. David Thomson £16.2bn — Media
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