Mexican tycoon Slim overtakes Gates as world's richest man: report
4/7/2007 16:30
Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim has become the world's richest man with a
total fortune of around US$67.84 billion, overtaking the United States's Bill
Gates, who has US$59.2 billion, the Mexican financial website Sentido Commun
said yesterday.
The Bolsa Mexicana de Valores, the Mexican Stock Exchange,
whose index has quintupled in value since 2002, has created vast fortunes for
many local businessmen, it said.
Slim's wealth has soared due to the
26.5-percent surge in his mobile phone operating business America Movil and the
11.3-percent gain in the value of Telmex, Slim's near-monopoly fixed-line
telecom company.
This means he is worth nearly 8 percent of Mexico's gross
domestic product, and US$8.6 billion more than Gates.
In April, Forbes
magazine listed Slim as the world's second richest man, with US$56 billion,
overtaking US investor Warren Buffet for the second place on the world's wealth
billboard, but below Gates, founder of the software giant Microsoft.
Sentido
Comun said that Slim's wealth soared by US$10.8 billion in the April to June
period alone.
Mexico has a clear rich-poor divide, and the richest Mexicans
have personal fortunes worth more than US$123 billion while over half of
Mexicans live in poverty.
According to the Sentido Comun website, the
country's 38 wealthiest families are holding 14.4 percent of the nation's
assets.
Xinhua
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