Mr. Slim says he is to invest $8.3bn in Latin America

Net lease Market News

Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim Helú says he is to invest $8.3bn in 19 countries, mainly in Latin America.


The bulk of the money, some $3.6bn, is destined for his businesses in Mexico, including telecommunications, mining and road-building.

Drug-related violence affecting some regions of Mexico was no reason to stop investing in the country, Mr Slim said.

Last year he knocked Bill Gates off the top of Forbes magazine's billionaire's list with a fortune put at $53.5bn.

The planned $3.6bn for Mexico, a 13% rise on last year, would go to a range of sectors, with the bulk going to telecommunications, Mr Slim told a news conference in Mexico City.

"Whoever doesn't invest, be it out of fear or caution, will be left behind," he said.

Mr Slim said he believed the Mexican economy would continue to grow in 2011 and 2012.

Carlos Slim Helú (Spanish pronunciation: [ˈkarlos eˈslim eˈlu]; born January 28, 1940) is a Lebanese-Mexican business magnate, philanthropist and the chairman and CEO of Telmex, América Móvil. His extensive holdings in a considerable number of Mexican companies through his conglomerate, Grupo Carso, SA de CV, Carso represented about 18 percent of Slim’s $65 billion in public holdings, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. About two-thirds of that wealth comes from Slim’s stake in America Movil SAB, Latin America’s largest mobile-phone carrier increased 26 percent in 2010. His net worth is now estimated at 74.5 billion dollars — 15.5 billion more than last year,Slim’s best earners were his stock in Latin American telephone behemoth America Movil, up 15 percent, and his 42-percent increase in holdings of financial giant Grupo Financiero Inbursa and Construction company IDEAL, up by 31 percent. Sentido Comun director Eduardo Garcia said that Slim probably has more investment in private companies that is not revealed so easily, and that the 74.5-billion-dollar figure was only a minimum guess at his riches, amassed interests in the fields of communications, technology, retailing, and finance.[2] As of April 2010, he is the wealthiest person in the world with a net worth of around US$53.5 billion. sourcers www.wikipedia.com