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6 July 2007

Mexican tycoon is now world's richest individual

According to a respected tracker of Mexican financial wealth reported by Forbes Magazine, Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim Helu is currently the world's richest man, worth an estimated $67.8 billion, after overtaking Microsoft founder Bill Gates.

The Mexican businessman controls Latin America's largest mobile phone operator America Movil and in the three months to June its share price soared 27 percent, making him about $8.6 billion richer than Gates, according to Eduardo Garcia in Sentido Comun, the online financial publication.

Garcia estimated that Gates was worth $59.2 billion, which also pushes US billionaire investor Warren Buffet, known as the Sage of Omaha, down into the number three spot.

Forbes magazine reported in April that Slim had overtaken Buffett for the number two spot but was still behind Gates.

Garcia, who uses Forbes' calculations for US billionaires' wealth, said the 5.7 percent increase in Microsoft share prices in the second quarter is no match for the sharp rise in valuations of Slim's companies which include Mexican fixed-line operator Telmex and bank Inbursa.

Shares of Telmex in the second quarter rose 11 percent and Inbursa saw its stock advance 20 percent. Slim's companies have also teamed up with America's AT&T to try to buy a big stake in Telecom Italia which would have given him greater control of the Brazilian mobile phone market, but lost out to Spain's Telefonica.

Sentido Comun estimates Slim and his family own a fortune equivalent to 8 percent of Mexico's gross domestic product, indicating just how polarised the country is between super rich and very poor, where half the population live on less than $5 a day.

In a generous gesture, Slim recently pledged $100 million to Bill Clinton's anti-poverty campaign.

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