We have all been around long enough to know that those in the public eye are more complex than the media usually portrays. Carlos Slim Helú is no exception. We know him as being the richest man in the world. He is frequently referred to as the “Warren Buffett of Mexico.” Slim has extensive holdings in a considerable number of Mexican companies through his global conglomerate, Grupos Carso, SA de CV.
He has interests in the fields of communications, real estate, airlines, media, technology, retailing, and finance. Slim serves as the chairman and chief executive officer of telecommunications companies Telmex and América Móvil. In July of this year Forbes estimated the wealth of Carlos Slim at $79.6 billion; $500 million more than Bill Gates at $79.1 billion.
Today I would like to take a more than surface look at the world’s richest man.
As is usually the case, we need to start before he was born to really understand Carlos Slim. In 1902, Julián Slim Haddad, the father of Carlos Slim Helú, arrived in México from Lebanon, not yet 15 years old, all alone and speaking no Spanish.
At that time Lebanon was part of the Ottoman Empire and it conscripted its young men into the army at age 15. Because of this policy it was common for Lebanese mothers to send their sons into exile before their fifteenth birthday.
When Julián disembarked in Veracruz he went to Tampico, Tamaulipas, where his four older brothers lived, who like him had been exiled by their mother to save them from the army.
The Slim brothers later moved to México City and in 1911 Julián and his brother José, who was thirteen years older than him, founded the company La Estrella de Oriente (the Star of the East), so named in honor of their country of origin. The partnership was formed with each of them contributing less than 13,000 pesos ($1,000). Three years later, in the midst of the Mexican Revolution, Julián, then 26 years old, bought his brother’s fifty percent stake for 30,000 pesos ($2,300).
La Estrella de Oriente became an important dry goods store. Within a few years Julián Slim had acquired eleven more properties in the area. By 1922 his net worth was already over 1 million pesos ($77,000) between real estate, stocks and businesses.
Carlos Slim’s mother, Linda Helú, was the daughter of José Helú and Wadiha Atta, Lebanese immigrants who arrived in México at the end of the 19th century. José Helú brought with him the first Arabic printing press and after settling in Chihuahua founded one of the first magazines for the Lebanese community in the country.
In August 1926, Julián Slim and Linda Helú married in México City. During their marriage they had six children with Carlos Slim Helú being the second to the youngest. He was born on January 28, 1940, and learned from an early age the value of family as a priority in life.
Carlos Slim also received his first business lessons in early childhood, as Julián gave each of his children a savings book with their usual weekly allowance in order for them to learn to manage their income. Carlos and his father would review and discuss his expenses, purchases and activities. The father taught the young Carlos the values of bookkeeping, teaching him how to read financial statements and keep records. It is something that Carlos Slim has kept with him all his life. By following this rule, each of Julián’s children managed their finances and developed their own wealth.
Investments and savings were part of young Carlos’s life and he put those lessons into practice by opening his first checking account and buying shares of Banco Nacional de México when he was only 12 years old.
Carlos Slim studied Civil Engineering at the National Autonomous University of México (UNAM) School of Engineering, where he also taught Algebra and Linear Programming while studying for his degree.
Carlos Slim met Soumaya Domit Gemayel when he was 24. Their mothers, both of Lebanese-Mexican ancestry, were friends. They married in 1966. He describes her as the love of his life and says he learned a lot from her about sculptures and paintings; adding that their honeymoon was full of gallery visits. Soumaya was a philanthropist and a promoter of the arts and the Telmex Foundation. His wife of 33 years died of kidney failure in 1999; Carlos Slim has not remarried. The name of his conglomerate, Grupos Carso stands for Carlos Slim and Soumaya Domit de Slim, his late wife.
The couple had six children – Carlos, Marco Antonio, Patrick, Soumaya, Vanessa and Johanna – most of whom work in Carlos Slim’s empire.
Notwithstanding the fact that according to Forbes his net worth grew at a rate of almost $10 million a day last year, he always drives himself with a convoy of bodyguards closely following. He lives in the same modest home he purchased 40 years, which is a mile from his office; a simple building. He says he does not need a bigger house, adding, “What would I do with a house 10 times bigger? In a big house, you don’t see your family, never. You don’t meet each other.”
He has no interest in luxurious mega-yachts or palaces scattered across the globe and for most of the 1990s he used a plastic calculator watch (it doubled as his calculator). He doesn’t indulge in designers’ shoes or clothing, but confesses he has a weakness for expensive Cuban cigars and of course, fine art. His art collection is said to be worth $6 billion. Carlos Slim has the world’s largest private collection of the works of French sculptor Auguste Rodin, which is now housed in the Soumaya Museum named after his wife and opened in 2011.
He does not travel widely and has no home outside México, something he is very proud of. He admits to staying up late at night reading history books. While soccer remains México’s most popular sport, Slim loves baseball, especially the New York Yankees and has a vast knowledge of its games and player statistics.
It is said he does not have a computer in his office; preferring to keep his records in carefully-written notebooks. Although he does have a personal laptop he does not like using it. He says, “I’m a paper man, not electronic.”
He is a philanthropist, but when Bill Gates and Warren Buffett pledged to donate at least 50 percent of their wealth to charities, Slim refused to join the select group. He said:
“But why half? Why half? I think it will be a big mistake that companies like Microsoft, Apple, the leaders of the world in technology be sold by the founders to put the cash to fund charities. They shouldn’t. It’s more important that they continue to manage the companies. Bill 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.”
He bluntly states that he has no intention of retiring from business to focus on charitable activities.
“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. Poverty isn’t solved with donations,” adding that “building businesses is often more beneficial to society than ‘going around like Santa Claus.’”
México’s billionaire says, “Wealth is like an orchard – you have to share the fruit, not the trees. With the orchard, what you have to do is make it grow, reinvest it to make it bigger, or diversify into other areas.”
One of Carlos Slim’s more widely talked about investments is his eight percent ownership of The New York Times. In 2009 he loaned the struggling newspaper $250 million. The loan was repaid almost three years ago, but as part of the 2009 deal he received an option to buy 15.9 million Class A shares at $6.36 each. The warrants expire in January 2015.
According to an article by Bloomberg he will exercise his option before they expire. The shares are currently trading a $12.20 per share, which will give him a profit of $194 million and a 17% stake in The New York Times.
This modest man continues to grow his orchard.
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