Richest man

Chapter 41 The Americas: Carlos Salim Helu (2)
In 1997, the Internet service provider Wireless Online Services, which was crushed by the first Internet storm, became a member of the Carso Group. In [-], Teleméxico acquired most of the shares of Toppt Networks, which was to be established in Miami, for US$[-] million.After acquiring the Internet company, Carlos Salim contacted Bill Gates to create a real portal for low-income Americans - Spanish-speaking residents.

While Carlos Salim was frantically buying the stocks of a large number of telecommunications companies and high-tech companies around the world, many international telecommunications companies were trying to enter Mexico and other Latin American countries, trying to compete with the Mexican Telephone Company in this huge monopoly market. compete.

Carlos Salem had many transnational challengers, the most powerful of which were AT&T and American WorldCom, which were known as the giants of the telecommunications industry at that time. They established two telephone companies in Mexico respectively and held [-] % and [-]% of the shares.In Mexico, though, Carlos Salim was never afraid of a challenge.Soon, the two parent companies had serious financial problems, and WorldCom even filed for bankruptcy protection. Their branches in Mexico were naturally not rivals of Mexico Communications.

In another field of mobile communications, Verizon Corporation of the United States and Vodafone Corporation of the United Kingdom also wanted to gain a certain market share in Latin America and tried to challenge the monopoly power of America Mobile under Carlos. Like AT&T and WorldCom, they were also forced to flee Mexico.Almost all of the companies they invested in Mexico lost about $[-] million.

So far, the Mexican Telephone Company still controls more than [-]% of the fixed-line telephone business in this country, and the monopoly business of the American Mobile Communications Company is also very considerable. After acquiring the mobile communication business of many Latin American countries such as Peru, it has become a Latin American The most important mobile communication company.In addition, surprisingly, the competition with multinational companies has not caused price confusion in this market at all. The Mexican telephone company has not even lowered the price at all, and the call rate is still twice that of the United States.According to a statistics of Bank of Merrill Lynch, the call charges between the users of the Mexican Telephone Company, as well as the call charges between the users of the company and the mobile phone and fixed-line users of other companies are all the highest in the world. According to the statistics, only in [-] The income accounts for [-]% of the annual revenue of the Mexican Telephone Company.It is conceivable how much wealth this enterprise has created for Carlos Salem every year.

Of course, Carlos' acquisition was not smooth.The American computer company he bought for $[-] million became a victim when the dot-com bubble burst.Until now, Carso is still figuring out how to revitalize the company.Some say that Carlos Salem is indeed a brilliant entrepreneur, but he can only be convincing in Latin America. "Any investor looking for a breakthrough in the telecommunications field will be able to encounter good opportunities, but this kind of thing will not happen in the United States." Analysts at Bank of Merrill Lynch think so.

why carlos salem
Why is it Carlos Salem and not someone else who has achieved such great success in the changing situation of Latin America? There are only two secrets.

find a bargain

In an interview, the US "Business Week" commented on Carlos Salem: In the past 20 years, he has shown a mysterious ability to find undervalued companies, and then transform them, turning them into money making machine.His ability to pick stocks and companies could be called the "Warren Buffett of Latin America."

Carlos Salem's ability to become the richest man in Latin America is undoubtedly closely related to this ability to find bargains.

Looking at it now, buying the Mexican Telephone Company with a market value of 1760 billion for US$200 million is undoubtedly the most important event in Carlos Salem’s life. In just 20 years, the value of this company has increased by more than 2000 times. It also brought huge wealth to Carlos Salem, which cannot but be said to be a miracle.

Carlos Salem's mysterious ability is also reflected in his decision to buy Apple stock. In 1996, the sales revenue of "Apple" fell by 17 billion US dollars, while the value of finished products in stock was as high as 7 million US dollars. See " Apple's crisis, the market has sold off Apple's stock, and the stock price has plummeted.Carlos Salem bought about 1997% of Apple stock in 3, paying $17 per share.Just a few days after the transaction was completed, Apple Computer founder Steve Chambers returned to the company and introduced the new "Apple" product iMac. Within 12 months, Apple's stock soared to $100.Carlos Salem netted hundreds of millions of dollars.

It is difficult to say why Carlos Salem can make such a judgment.However, a lawsuit in 2004 gave us new reverie when we admired Carlos Salem's ability. On February 2004, 2, a court in Dallas, USA imposed a fine of US$8 million on Carlos Salem and four other defendants for their conspiracy to violate business regulations and make CommScope’s establishment of a branch in Mexico The plan fell through.The reason for the incident was that COC Service Co., Ltd., founded by three American Texans, got the contract to open a branch of CommScope in Mexico, and only needed investors.At first, Carlos Salem and his group expressed great interest in the project, but asked them to provide CommScope's internal secrets.However, after obtaining CommScope's internal secrets, Saleem and his partners never heard from them.At this time, the deadline for finding a partner with CommScope came, and the plan to open a CommScope branch had to be abandoned.What made them angry was that a few months later came the news that the Salem Group had bought CommScope for US$4 million.Fooled-off COC Services filed suit against Carlos Salem, CommScope President Jim Halpin, who was implicated by Carlos Salem, and two other companies.

monopoly power

How to get more wealth in the precarious Latin America? The answer seems to be monopoly.After the 80s, Carlos Salem apparently discovered this wealth secret.Let's take a look at his series of acquisition targets, all of which are related to the communication industry in Latin America that has not yet been fully marketized.

Up to now, his Mexican telephone company has a market share as high as 90%, and his American mobile communication company is one of the few multinational mobile service providers in Latin America. In addition, his communication companies in Peru, Canada and other places are also in the local market occupies an important position.The same is true for Carlos Salem's other important field, banking and finance.

Monopoly is the ancestor of profiteering. Carlos Salem decided to go down this road, but his idea is accepting new challenges.

For a long time, relying on the Mexican Telephone Company, which controls 90% of long-distance lines in Mexico, Carlos Salim has unilaterally set high international long-distance connection rates, thereby increasing the cost of long-distance calls between the United States and Mexico, and Relying on its monopoly position makes it difficult for foreign telecom companies to compete with it. On August 2000, 8, the United States requested consultations with Mexico on measures related to its telecommunications services, but the consultations ended in failure; on April 17, 2004, the WTO ruled that Mexico should significantly reduce its international long-distance connection rates, thereby making The cost of international calls from the United States to Mexico is halved.

On June 2004, 6, Zoellick, the U.S. trade representative, and the Mexican government issued a joint statement: the two sides had reached an agreement on the trade dispute over telecommunications services.According to the agreement reached by the United States and Mexico, Mexico will reduce the international long-distance connection fee and further open its long-distance market in accordance with the ruling of the WTO; A telephone line, and then resell the service provided by the line at a lower price, usually without paying an international long-distance connection fee.According to Mexican estimates, in 2, 2000% of the international long-distance calls from the United States to Mexico used the "toll bypass service", and Mexico lost 20 million U.S. dollars every year.

Of course, Carlos Salem accounted for the vast majority of this huge loss of income.

"My main task is to understand what is happening"

As he grows older, Carlos Salim, who was once rated as the Latin American entrepreneurial elite for nine consecutive years, seems to have less ambition and does not pursue interests as before. He even told the media: Now, his main task It is about understanding what is happening and finding your place.

It was a heart operation six years ago that prompted his retreat, and Carlos Salim often says he was on the brink of death. In 2004, the death of his wife Sumaya Domit, who had been married to him for [-] years, made Carlos Salim feel very lonely and wanted to escape the complexity of business.He continued to collect the works of world famous painters such as Monet, which became his greatest hobby.In view of the fact that the market value of the Mexican Telephone Company he reshaped has exceeded [-] billion U.S. dollars, accounting for [-]% of the total capital of the Mexican Stock Exchange. In July [-], Carlos officially announced his retirement. His three sons—Carlos, Marco Antonio and Patrick—had all the business of Bank of Ibursa and Ibursa.

After retirement, Carlos, in addition to immersing himself in art appreciation, also accepted the invitation of the Mexican left to fund the establishment of a committee to oversee the revitalization of the historic sites in the center of Mexico City.There is public opinion that he has become a social activist and is about to abandon business and pursue politics, but Carlos denies that he has political ambitions or has any secret deals with a certain political party.

"I don't belong to any political party. I will help everyone who asks for my funding. I support the democratic process unconditionally. The work here is a hobby and an emotional need. If the motivation for this work is still there, the next few years In [-], I will not hesitate to play an important role in poverty eradication and social development in Latin America," Carlos said.We run a business group, but we happen to be in the newspaper business.

(End of this chapter)