Monday, March 30, 2009
Nine Mexicans (One a Drug Lord) on Billionaires' List
By Allan
Wall
Forbes Magazine has released
its annual listing of the world’s billionaires.
Even billionaires have been affected
by the global economic crisis. As Forbes puts it, “The richest people in the world have gotten poorer, just like the
rest of us. This year the world's billionaires have an average net worth of $3 billion,
down 23% in 12 months. The world now has 793 billionaires, down from 1,125 a year ago.”
Certainly losing 23% of one’s
net worth for a billionaire is not quite as nerve-wracking as it is for a working-class stiff. Nevertheless, when rich people have financial trouble, the middle class and working poor lose jobs, so it’s
nothing to crow about.
According to Forbes, the world’s
three wealthiest men are still Bill Gates, Warren Buffett and Carlos Slim, though the values of each of their assets have
dropped. Bill Gates has $40 billion (down $18 billion from last year), Buffet
has $37 billion (down $25 billion), and Mexican Carlos Slim dropped $25 billion (he is now worth $35 billion).
This year, Forbes listed nine
Mexican tycoons on the billionaire list. Here is a list of all nine, with the
net worth of each billionaire and his family:
1. Carlos Slim, with $35 billion. The man known as “King Midas,” or “The Engineer,” really made
it into the big leagues back in 1990 when he bought Telmex, which now controls over 90% of Mexico’s landlines. Slim also has Telcel (which controls almost 80% of the Mexican cellular phone market)
and América Móvil, Latin America’s biggest wireless provider, with 173 million customers. Slim has a bank, an airline, department stores, restaurants and music outlets. Slim sells insurance, auto parts, and ceramic tile. The Mexican
government pays Slim to construct roads, water treatment plants, petroleum platforms, etc. In addition to all that, Carlos
Slim purchased part of The New York Times this past year.
2. Alberto Bailleres (#83) is worth $5.7
billion, down from $9.8 billion a year ago. Bailleres is chairman of the metallurgical
giant Industrias Peñoles, and he has stock in the luxury department store El Palacio de Hierro, Grupo Nacional Provincial
insurance company, and the investment firm Grupo Profuturo. Bailleres serves
on the board of bottling company Femsa. He also has a 300 foot yacht called The
Mayan Queen IV.
3. Ricardo Salinas Pliego (#124) is worth
$4.2 billion (down from $6.3 billion a year ago). Salinas Pliego runs the Grupo Elektra retailer (which he inherited) and
TV Azteca network (which he started). Banco Azteca, part of the Elektra chain,
serves mostly low-income clients and last year made about 12,000 new loans daily.
4. Jeronimo Arango, at #178, is worth
$3.4 billion, down from $4.3 billion last year. Arango’s family business was the Bodega Aurrera supermarket chain, part
of Grupo Cifra, which sold out to Wal-mart and became Wal-mart de México (Walmex), netting the family a couple of billion. The Arangos also own real estate. Jeronimo Arango’s art collection includes
pieces by El Greco and Goya, some of which he has donated to Spain's Museo
Nacional del Prado, in Madrid. Arango also serves on the El Prado Museum board of trustees.
5. Mining and lumber magnate German Larrea
Mota Velasco (#246) is CEO of the mining company Grupo México. Larrea is currently
worth $2.6 billion, down from $7.3 billion last year. Grupo Mexico also includes Mexico’s biggest railroad company Ferromex. Of late, Grupo México has been beset by accidents, chief among them the Pasta de Conchos
tragedy in 2006, when 60 miners perished. Workers at the company’s Cananea
copper mine have been striking since 2007. The company lost a lawsuit to a smelter
that it had bought out. On the bright side, last year this billionaire purchased
Cinemex, the movie chain, which should be quite profitable.
6. Roberto Hernandez Ramirez, (#601) is
worth $1.2 billion, dropping down from $1.7 billion a year ago. Hernandez was
CEO of Banamex when that bank sold out to Citigroup. Hernandez still owns over 14 million shares of Citigroup, but the value
of said shares has plummeted from $375 million to $50 million. Hernandez plans to leave the Citigroup board in April, but
to continue as CEO of Banamex. Hernandez also owns luxury resorts on the Yucatan Peninsula.
7. The first-time inclusion of Joaquin
Guzman Loera (#701) caused quite a stir. That’s because Guzman (known by the nickname “el Chapo,” or Shorty,
is chief of the Sinaloa drug cartel. The estimated net worth of this narco baron
is $1 billion.
8. Emilio Azcarraga Jean (#701), at 41,
is the youngest Mexican on the list. Worth $1 billion ($1.6 billion last year), Azcarraga runs Grupo Televisa with its TV
network and channels, telenovela production, radio, satellite, Internet, publishing, gambling and discount airline enterprises.
9. Alfredo Harp Helu (#701), worth $1
billion ($1.6 billion a year ago), is Carlos Slim’s first cousin. Harp
was running Banamex when the company cashed in by selling out to Citigroup in 2001.
He now owns the Mexico City “Red Devils” baseball team, and the Grupo Marti gym and sporting goods store.
These Mexican moguls, according
to Forbes, are the nine Mexican billionaires. Isaac Saba Raffoul, of pharmaceutical giant Grupo Casa Saba, and Lorenzo Zambrano,
of cement giant Cemex, were on the 2008 list but fell off this year.
——————————
The World's Billionaires, Forbes Magazine, March 11, 2009
——————————
Allan Wall, an educator, resided in Mexico for many years. His website is located at www.allanwall.net.
