mexbiznews's blog

Sentido Comun

Carlos Slim reached the top of Forbes magazine's list of the world's wealthiest after his companies' good stock performance helped him amass a fortune of $53.5 billion.

While that amount caused Slim to upset Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates for the No. 1 position on the list, Slim's worth, according to estimates compiled by Sentido Comun, exceeds that reported by the business magazine.

Slim's fortune, based on the value of shares in publicly traded companies plus dividends received since 2007, is closer to $58.2 billion. And that figure does not include other personal investments that the Mexican tycoon has made in non-listed companies.
www.sentidocomun.com.mx/articulo.phtml

El Semanario
and Forbes

While the number of billionaires in the world shrunk last year to the smallest number and the richest got a lot poorer, the number of Mexican billionaires increased and their fortunes expanded by 63 percent.

With mogul Carlos Slim at the top as the world's richest man with $53.5 billion, seven other Mexicans made the 2010 list of the world's richest that was published by Forbes magazine on Wednesday.

Among the more notable new billionaires is Mexican Joaquín "Chapo" Guzmán Loera, one of the biggest suppliers of cocaine to the United States with holdings of $1 billion.

Of the Mexican businessmen, Germain Larrea, owner of Grupo Mexico, recorded the highest growth in personal wealth with an increase of 273 percent, going from $2.6 billion in 2009 to $9.7 billion in 2010.

The collective net worth of all Forbes billionaires is $2.4 trillion, down $2 trillion from a year ago. Their average net worth fell 23 percent to $3 billion.

Mexicans on the list have a total fortune of $90.3 billion, representing a growth of 63.8 percent compared with the $55.1 billion reported in the ranking of 2009.

The other Mexican billionaires are Ricardo Salinas Pliego, president and CEO of Grupo Salinas and Grupo Elektra ($10.1 billion); Alberto Bailleres, owner of Grupo Bal holding company, which includes silver mining company Industrias Peñoles, department store El Palacio de Hierro, and insurance company Grupo Nacional Provincial ($8.3 billion); Jeronimo Arango, co-founder of the Aurrerá chain of supermarkets ($4 billion); Emilio Azcarraga, CEO of Grupo Televisa ($1.5 billion), and Roberto Hernandez, former Banamex CEO and a member of the administration board of Citigroup ($1.2 billion).
www.elsemanario.com.mx/news/news_display.php

By Chris Dolmetsch and Crayton Harrison
Bloomberg

Mexico’s Carlos Slim beat Bill Gates and Warren Buffett for the top spot on Forbes magazine’s annual list of billionaires, becoming the first person from outside the United States to lead the rankings in 16 years.

The net worth of Slim, 70, who built a telecommunications empire after buying Mexico’s state-run phone monopoly two decades ago, rose $18.5 billion to $53.5 billion.

Gates, 54, chairman of Microsoft Corp., fell to second as his net worth increased $13 billion to $53 billion. Buffett, 79, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., was third with $47 billion, a rise of $10 billion.

Slim is the first person other than Gates, last year’s richest person, or Buffett to top the list since 1994, which was also the last time a billionaire from outside the U.S. led the ranking: Japanese real estate tycoon Yoshiaki Tsutsumi.

“We’ve been watching Slim for a while and kind of wondered when the stars would align and he would take over,” Forbes senior editor Luisa Kroll said in an interview today.

More than 80 percent of Slim’s holdings are held in five public stocks, she said. “His net worth really reflects how well those stocks are doing. Everything that he owns has done very, very well this year.”

Slim’s holdings in Mexico extend from retail, with the Sanborns department store chain, through banking and construction. Through his holding companies and investment vehicles, he holds stakes in U.S. companies including the New York Times Co., Saks Inc. and Bronco Drilling Co.

“His management of America Movil, which I believe is the principal reason for his wealth, has been exceptional,” said Jose Miguel Garaicochea at Banco Santander. “And when he has gone outside of Mexico, he has also done very well.”

www.businessweek.com/news/2010-03-10/slim-overtakes-gates-buffett-to-become-forbes-richest-person.html

By Chris Dolmetsch and Crayton Harrison
Bloomberg

Mexico’s Carlos Slim beat Bill Gates and Warren Buffett for the top spot on Forbes magazine’s annual list of billionaires, becoming the first person from outside the United States to lead the rankings in 16 years.

The net worth of Slim, 70, who built a telecommunications empire after buying Mexico’s state-run phone monopoly two decades ago, rose $18.5 billion to $53.5 billion.

Gates, 54, chairman of Microsoft Corp., fell to second as his net worth increased $13 billion to $53 billion. Buffett, 79, chairman of Berkshire Hathaway Inc., was third with $47 billion, a rise of $10 billion.
www.businessweek.com/news/2010-03-10/slim-overtakes-gates-buffett-to-become-forbes-richest-person.html

El Semanario
and CNBC

Forbes magazine today publishes its list of the richest individuals on the planet. In Mexico, the question is: Will mogul Carlos Slim finally capture the top spot from U.S. billionaires Bill Gates and Warren Buffet.

Analysts are forecasting that Warren Buffett, who topped the list only once, will again come in behind his friend and online bridge partner, Bill Gates, who has captured the No. 1 spot 13 times.

Mexican businessman Carlos Slim, who was estimated by online publication Sentido Comun at one point during the recession year of 2009, to be the world's richest man, is expected appear at No. 3, a position he has occupied in the last three Forbes' rankings.

www.elsemanario.com.mx/news/news_display.php

By John Hecht
The Hollywood Reporter

Mexico has launched a $20-million tax incentive program in an ambitious move to draw large-scale film and audiovisual productions from Hollywood.

Mexican President Felipe Calderon made the announcement Tuesday at Baja Studios in Baja California, where James Cameron's "Titanic" and Peter Weir's "Master and Commander: Far Side of the World" were shot in the studio's colossal tanks.

The president said the program intends to elevate Mexico as "the capital of Latin American cinema."

Managed by state-run film financing agency Imcine and Mexican trade and investment body ProMexico, the upstart program offers tax rebates of 7.5 percent on film productions that exceed the amount of 70 million pesos ($5.5 million).
www.hollywoodreporter.com/hr/content_display/news/e3i5c964e4d188f5581222d37f1411e9cb7

By Clifford Krauss and Elisabeth Malkin
The New York Times

To the Mexican people, one of the great achievements in their history was the day their president kicked out foreign oil companies in 1938. Thus, they celebrate March 18 as a civic holiday.

Yet today, that 72-year-old act has put Mexico in a straitjacket, one that threatens both the welfare of the country and the oil supply of the United States.

Pemex, the national oil company created after the 1938 seizure, is entering a period of turmoil. Oil production in its aging fields is sagging so rapidly that Mexico, long one of the world’s top oil-exporting countries, could begin importing oil within the decade.

Mexico is among the three leading foreign suppliers of oil to the United States, along with Canada and Saudi Arabia.

Mexican barrels can be replaced, but at a cost. It means greater American dependence on unfriendly countries like Venezuela, unstable countries like Nigeria and Iraq, and on the oil sands of Canada, an environmentally destructive form of oil production.

“As you lose Mexican oil, you lose a critical supply,” said Jeremy M. Martin, director of the energy program at the Institute of the Americas at the University of California, San Diego. “It’s not just about energy security but national security, because our neighbor’s economic and political well-being is largely linked to its capacity to produce and export oil.”

Mexico probably still has plenty of oil, especially beneath the deep waters of the Gulf of Mexico, but Pemex lacks the technology and know-how to get it out. Inviting foreign companies into the country to help is one of the touchiest propositions in Mexican politics.

As the Mexican government struggles to find a way forward, production keeps falling.

www.nytimes.com/2010/03/09/business/global/09pemex.html

By Manuel Durán
Reforma

Federal Comptroller General Ricardo Garcia Sainz acknowledged Monday that there is a regime of corruption among officials and real estate developers in Mexico City.

An investigation into alleged corruption by a previous administration in Cuajimalpa de Morelos, one of Mexico City's 16 boroughs, has revealed not only a network of corrupution in that district but throughout Mexico City.

"There are cases where licenses are granted without attention to policy or there are cases of omission," Garcia Sainz said. "We are living in the midst of a corruption scheme that we can not deny."

www.reforma.com/ciudad/articulo/544/1087358/

El Semanario

In an effort to deflect the controversy that has erupted after PAN official Cesar Nava revealed he signed a pact with the PRI exchanging election manuevers for budget support, President of the Institutional Revolutionary Party Beatriz Paredes denied being party to the agreement.

Paredes, appearing at a party event in Durango, said that the controversy is something in which the National Action Party has become entangled and in which it wants to entangle the PRI.

"I do not have anything to say about it," she said, denying that she approved the agreement.

www.elsemanario.com.mx/news/news_display.php

By José Merino
El Economista

Only 30 percent of Mexican women, three of every ten of working age, are participating in the country's labor force, according to a report by the Intelligence Unit of El Economista.

The study explained the skewed figures due to the propensity to allocate domestic responsibilities and child care to women.
 
As a result, women are paid less than men. They are more vulnerable to economic shocks. And, they are over-represented in informal jobs that provide more flexibility so that they can take care of domestic and child-raising duties.

Of all the country's economic sector, the greatest inequality in average income was in financial enterprises, where women earned only 63 percent of the salaries earned by men.

In contrast, public employment offers the most equitable situation, in whcih women earn 95 percent of what men earn.

The study also show that women get less education, mainly because of expectations that they will be more involved in keeping house and raising families.

Moreover, women's relationships with the labor market were more sporadic than men's because they often left work to have or raise children.

And, the study showed they couldn't meet the demands of full-time employment because they spent a higher proportion of their time on work related to the home.

eleconomista.com.mx/sociedad/2010/03/07/inequidad-laboral-nace-hogares