New York – Multi-billionaire Carlos Slim did not have a profitable 2015. In fact, he had the worst year among the wealthiest people in the world.
The Mexican mogul lost nearly US $20 billion due to a decrease in share value of his telecommunication company, America Movil SAB, according to Bloomberg.
Despite losing the whopping billions, Carlos Slim’s net worth is still $52.8 billion, making him the fifth wealthiest person in the world, among the 400 richest individuals in Bloomberg’s list.
Comparatively, Slim’s $20-billion loss is nearly equal to the size of the economy of Honduras, the same source revealed.
Slim owns 57 percent of the Mexico City-based America Movil SAB, which stock dropped 18 percent in 2015, compared to the previous year.
According to the same source, last November, Mexican conglomerate Fomento Economico Mexicano SAB took down America Movil SAB to become the most weighted stock on Mexico’s benchmark IPC Index.
“The change in telecom regulations in Mexico attracted competition, and now AT&T is investing heavily to create a strong mobile player in the country,” Credit Suisse analyst Daniel Federle said.
“Competition will get tougher in the following years,” he added, which will pose a bigger threat to America Movil that controls about 70 percent of mobile phones and 62 percent of land lines in Mexico.
Another factor that allegedly affected the Mexican executive’s earnings this year was to have withdrawn from a project with Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
Last June, Slim and his television company cut ties with Trump after the American made discriminatory remarks against Mexicans.
Carlos Slim Helú was born January 28, 1940 in Mexico City. From 2010 to 2013, Slim was ranked as the richest person in the world by Forbes magazine. The 75-year-old’s ethnicity is Lebanese. He is known as the “Warren Buffett of Mexico.”
