Carlos Slim, the world’s richest man, lost about $6.7 billion this week.
The Mexican billionaire’s stock portfolio, measured in US dollars, has dropped about 9.5 per cent since July 29 and is valued at about $64.4 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. That compares with a 7.2 per cent slide in the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index.
Slim, 71, has taken a hit as Mexico’s benchmark IPC index dropped 6.4 per cent and the peso slid 2.3 per cent against the dollar on concerns that the flagging US economy will hurt demand for assets in its southern neighbour. The removal of three of Slim’s companies from the IPC index has made matters worse for the billionaire.
“He’s been particularly hurt by those companies leaving the IPC,” said Leon Cabrera, a trader at Mexico City-based Vanguardia Casa de Bolsa. “It reflects the nervousness out there. It’s part of being in the market.”
America Movil SAB, the biggest wireless carrier in the Americas and Slim’s largest asset, has declined a relatively benign six per cent this week. Its Telefonos de Mexico SAB unit has been Slim’s only gainer in Mexico, rising 11 per on the parent company’s offer to buy out minority shareholders.
The Standard & Poor’s index extended its decline today, falling 0.1 per cent at close. The IPC rose 1.1 per cent, and America Movil gained 1.1 per cent.
BUYING OPPORTUNITY
The drop in America Movil, which has fallen 20 per cent this year as regulators seek to put a dent in its 70 per cent share of Mexico’s mobile-phone market, is an opportunity for investors to buy stock in a solid company, Cabrera said yesterday in a telephone interview.
Even measured in Mexican pesos, Slim’s holdings have dropped about 7.3 per cent this week, a bigger decline than the broader Mexican market. Bolsa Mexicana de Valores SAB, the Mexican stock exchange operator, said on August 2 that it would drop Slim’s Grupo Financiero Inbursa SAB, Inmuebles Carso SAB and Grupo Carso SAB from the IPC index as part of an annual rebalancing.
Inbursa, Slim’s financial-services firm, slid 8.2 per cent this week, while Inmuebles Carso, a real estate firm, declined 11 per cent, and Grupo Carso, a holding company with retail and construction units, fell 14 per cent.
Slim was named the world’s richest man for a second year in a row by Forbes magazine in March. Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, second and third on the magazine’s list, have had better weeks, at least for their biggest holdings.
Gates’s Microsoft Corp. dropped 6.3 per cent this week. Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. slid 3.9 per cent.
Arturo Elias, a spokesman for Slim, declined to comment in an email.
