Claro boss thrives on crises

MEXICAN tycoon Carlos Slim, who has knocked Bill Gates from the top of the Forbes list of the world's billionaires, is famed for his lack of ostentation and aggressive investments during crises.

Slim, 70, took the top spot for the first time in the list published on Wednesday, pushing the Microsoft founder out as he rose from third place on the success of America Movil, Latin America's biggest mobile phone operator and parent company of Claro.

His fortune was estimated at US$53.5 billion, according to the new Forbes ranking out Wednesday.

"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," Arturo Elias Ayub, spokesman for Slim's Telmex group, told AFP.

Slim's fortune rose US$18.5 billion in 12 months, and shares of America Movil, of which he owns a US$23-billion stake, were up 35 per cent in a year, according to Forbes.

Slim learned his business acumen at an early age; his father, a Lebanese immigrant, gave each of his children a savings book for managing their income and expenses.

Slim studied civil engineering and later built up the telephone monopoly Telmex after acquiring it from the government in 1990.

The soft-spoken billionaire last month received authorisation to merge three of his telecommunications companies to form a regional giant, with 250 million customers in 18 countries.

His business empire is ever-present across Mexico, including department stores, building companies and the Inbursa financial group.

Amid the financial crisis of 2008, he continued his trademark behavior of buying up struggling businesses, for which he first became famous during the Latin American economic crisis of the early 1980s.

"Instead of stopping investing, he invests more when a crisis comes and the results have always been good," Ayub said.

In 2008, Slim bought a minority stake in The New York Times as the stock sank.

He has recently made investments in telecommunications across the Americas, and also in infrastructure, including water and electricity companies, Ayub said.

Slim, a widower with six children, has handed over the daily operations of his companies to his three sons and business partners and is a well-known public figure in Mexico.

He is also a baseball fanatic, and known for his philanthropy although not on the scale of Gates.

Through two foundations he has invested some US$10 billion in health, education, justice and sports projects in Mexico and Latin America.

Meanwhile, Slim's Claro operations in Jamaica said on Friday that its network has grown by close to 150,000 subscribers since the start of the year. Claro has been operating in Jamaica for over a year and has inundated the media landscape with agressive advertisements aimed at making inroads in a local mobile phone market dominated by Digicel, which is owned by Irish billionaire Denis O'Brien. O'Brien also made the Forbes ranking with a net worth US$3.5 billion.

Commenting on Claro's growth in Jamaica, Claro marketing officer Latoy Williams said: "We are now growing at a phenomenal rate and the trend appears as if it will remain the same in the months and years to come. More and more people are discovering that it is more efficient and cost-effective to have a Claro phone. In addition, we now have 261 locations islandwide so persons can access us from all over the 14 parishes.

AFP story with additional reporting from the Jamaica Observer

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