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Slim's wealth inflated by Mexico's most expensive stocks

Thursday, March 21, 2013


Carlos Slim is clinging to his title as the world’s richest person thanks to stakes in the priciest publicly traded companies in his native Mexico, even as his biggest holding plummets in value.

While Slim, 73, is best known as the majority owner of embattled wireless carrier América Móvil, his banking, mining and construction companies are so expensive that if they aligned with industry averages, he would relinquish the mantle to Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates.

The Mexican billionaire’s bank, Grupo Financiero Inbursa, is trading at 26.1 times trailing earnings, the highest among five publicly-traded Mexican lenders, whose average valuation is 20.2 times earnings. His gold mining and construction companies each top peer valuations by at least as much.

Source: Bloomberg