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Carlos Slim Helúfor

Mexican-Lebanese Billionaire

Thread by @saysDana

Mexican Billionaire Invests in Times Company  BY DEALBOOK JANUARY 20, 2009, Originally NY Times by Eric Dash January 19, 2009  “The New York Times Company said Monday it had reached an agreement with the Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim Helúfor a $250 million loan intended to help the newspaper company finance its businesses. Mr. Slim, one of the wealthiest people in the world, controls phone companies and has major investments in retailing, construction, banking, insurance, railroads and mining. In March, Forbes magazine estimated his fortune at $60 billion.” “Back in 2009, where was the outrage when Carlos Slim, the wealthiest Mexican in Mexico buys into the Times to help pay down debt. Now, 17% is still a large share back then. Not on the board though.The New York Times Company said Monday it had reached an agreement with the Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim Helú for a $250 million LOAN intended to help the newspaper company finance its businesses. Under the terms of the deal, Mr. Slim, who already owns 6.9 percent of the Times Company, would invest $250 million in the form of six-year notes with warrants that are convertible into common shares, the company said in a statement. Already owned 6.9% of the NYT. Huh The notes also carry a 14% interest rate, with 11% paid in cash and 3% in additional bonds. The deal comes as the Times Company looks to raise money amid flagging advertising sales and approaching deadlines to pay back $1.1 billion in debt in the next few years. The company will use the proceeds from the transaction to refinance its existing debt. One of its two $400 million revolving credit lines is set to expire in May. The $250 million investment should help free some of the company’s borrowing capacity. They also sold their interest in the Boston Red Sox to an undisclosed investor. The Times Co. owns the Boston Globe. New York Times sold 390 of its 700 Class B units of Fenway Sports to three separate buyers for a total of $117 million Wonder who those buyers are? And while calling out Mexicans and name calling Mr. Slim, he quietly has him for dinner at Mar-A-Lago.”  @saysDana


Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim speaks at news conference at the Soumaya Museum in Mexico City in March 2011. (Ronaldo Schemidt/AFP/Getty Images)
 “In the closing days of his campaign, Donald Trump vilified one of the world’s richest men — Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim — as part of a globalist cabal conspiring to extinguish his populist candidacy. At an Oct. 14 rally, Trump attacked Slim personally and accused Times journalists of being “corporate lobbyists for Carlos Slim.”
Yet over the weekend, Slim journeyed to Mar-a-Lago, Trump’s estate in Palm Beach, Fla., for what the president-elect described as “a lovely dinner with a wonderful man.”The peacemaking gesture — the culmination of weeks of back-channel negotiations that included a secret visit to Mexico City by a Trump envoy — signals a possible thawing between Trump and Mexico’s business and political elite, which he had used relentlessly as a foil throughout his campaign.The communications raised hopes in Mexico’s business community that Trump might reconsider his vow to tear up the North American Free Trade Agreement and be persuaded to adopt less hard-line immigration and economic policies, which were cornerstones of his campaign. Slim’s visit to Mar-a-Lago came after Corey Lewandowski, a former Trump campaign manager who remains a confidant of the president-elect, quietly visited Mexico City on Dec. 9 to meet with Slim.Trump told friends at the time that he believed Slim — who once had a business relationship with a rival candidate, former Florida governor Jeb Bush — helped orchestrate the public backlash.“He believes Carlos Slim was behind a lot of his problems,” said one Trump friend, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to be candid. This person suggested that Trump sees a benefit to Saturday’s dinner: “He wants to neutralize him.”Larry Rubin, president of the American Society of Mexico and a key liaison between Republican officials in the United States and Mexican leaders, said Trump and his team are forging a better understanding of shared economic interests between the two countries. “What President-elect Trump wants to do in coming closer to the Mexican business community has an impact not only nationally but regionally with Latin America and opens the doors for good business relations overall,” said Rubin, who is one of several candidates to serve as Trump’s ambassador to Mexico. “The closer that the administration is to businesses and governments in Mexico and in the region, the better for the U.S. A group of CEOs from both countries met in Mexico City recently for a public policy summit chaired by Tom Donohue, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce; John Rice, vice chairman of General Electric; Juan Pablo Castañón, chairman of the Consejo Coordinador Empresarial, a Mexican private-sector business council; and Armando Garza, chairman of Alfa, a Mexican-based multinational conglomerate.Slim’s mark can be seen all across Mexico City, from the glittering Museo Soumaya, an hourglass-shaped building made of aluminum tiles and named after his late wife, to the Sanborns department stores that dot so many corners. His wealth amounts to a noticeable chunk of the country’s gross domestic product.”Donald Trump asks his supporters if they understand what he says after criticizing NAFTA. (The Washington Post)

“And then last year, he decides to sell those shares of the NYT or part of them to some US hedge fund investors” @saysDana

Carlos Slim Plans to Slash New York Times Holdings Bloomberg By 

  • Mexican billionaire’s stake would be reduced to 8% from 17%
  • Structure of sale is said to create tax benefits for Slim
“Slim exercised the warrants in 2015 and has held on to most of the shares, benefiting from a 51 percent rally as the election of President Donald Trump drove demand for digital subscriptions from news-hungry readers. Sure he did, he was that smart.Before he was elected, Trump accused Slim of using his ownership stake in the Times to influence the paper’s coverage of him. The Times said Slim never affected coverage and a representative for the billionaire said Slim wasn’t interested in influencing the election. Uh huh, sure. Back in 2009, this was a really good story. This was interesting. In October, 2008, Chris Wood, a representative of SunTrust, an Atlanta bank that had loaned about eighty million dollars to the Times, approached Inbursa, a bank in Mexico City that belongs to Carlos Slim Helú.

Slim’s Time Who is Carlos Slim, and does he want the paper of record? New Yorker

By . “In modern history, no one has dominated a major economy as overwhelmingly as Carlos Slim does that of Mexico—a country of a hundred and ten million citizens, in which the per-capita income is little more than ten thousand dollars.”

“He was said, back in 2009, to have owned so many things that Mexican’s purchased that almost everything they bought belonged to Slim”

“But to many other Mexicans Slim represents what is wrong with the Mexican system. A prominent investment banker in Mexico City told me, “There are two views in the country about Slim. And, given his fortune, he is not a lavish spender. “He is the only Mexican among the top two hundred in wealth who doesn’t have a home in the U.S.,” a former Mexican government official told me. What? 200 Top Wealthiest people in Mexico owns homes in the U.S.? He loves baseball and art. But he’s not Mexican. He’s Lebanese Interesting, isn’t it?”
“So why want the times? as I post above, he saw an opportunity to make money on digital subscriptions that were boosted by Trump’s shenanigans.”
“In 2007, Hassan Elmasry, a Morgan Stanley fund manager based in London, who controlled ten million shares of Class A Times Company stock, pressured the management to eliminate the two-tier stock system, without success. The hedge fund Harbinger Capital Partners forced two candidates onto the board after acquiring nearly twenty per cent of the company’s stock, but that hasn’t got Harbinger any closer to running the paper. I can’t even go into this one, but I will in a separate thread. Who owns the Times? Lots of people.”

“HMMMMMM Why would David Geffen want to buy the times and take it private? Why would the Sulzbergers say no to that? Pride?”

“In May, Citibank approached Geffen and asked if he wanted to buy Harbinger’s stake in the Times, which would make him the largest shareholder after the Sulzberger family. Geffen said that he would pay market price , but Harbinger wanted a steep premium. Geffen declined. So who owns the Times? Many folks. Why is the NYTimes not giving us good honest solid journalism? Too many hands in the money jar. AND About that dinner with Slim at Mar-A-Lago? Where you go for payoffs? Slim’s visit to Mar-a-Lago came after Corey Lewandowski, a former Trump campaign manager who remains a confidant of the president-elect, quietly visited Mexico City on Dec. 9 to meet with Slim. After the election, Slim connected with [Corey] Lewandowski — someone he saw as having Trump’s ear but not as a formal member of his staff — and arranged for them to discuss trade, economic and other issues, according to people with knowledge of the session. A television company controlled by Slim canceled a project it had been working on with Trump’s company, and Slim’s spokesman said Trump was “close-minded” and his comments “totally out of line.” Really? a project with Slim and Trump? A group of CEOs from both countries met in Mexico City recently for a public policy summit chaired by Tom Donohue, president of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce; John Rice, vice chairman of General Electric [including ALFA]; all met in to discuss Trump. @SaysDana“

“In a 2013 appearance CBS’s “Late Show With David Letterman,” Trump told the host that Slim was a “good guy” with “a lot of money.” When Letterman detailed the towering nature of Slim’s fortune, however, Trump smiled. “I don’t feel so good when you mention Carlos Slim,” he said,”but that’s okay.” Washington Post
  • Ora TV, a production company co-founded by [Carlos] Slim, cancelled a program it was working on with some of Trump’s companies
  • Thus far, Trump has been dumped by NBC, Univision and Televisa following controversial comments he made as part of his presidential bid
  • Macy’s could be the next domino to fall as a petition urging the chain to dump Trump’s clothing line neared a quarter million signatures 

By REUTERS and AP PUBLISHED: June 29, 2015 | UPDATED: June 30, 2015 “Fired: Slim’s was the third company to cut ties with Trump. His comments – that some Mexican immigrants bring drugs and crime to the country and are rapists – offended many, were denounced by Mexican-American groups and led NBC to abruptly drop the billionaire. Ora TV, a production company co-founded by Slim and TV personality Larry King and funded by America Movil, cancelled a program it was working on with some of Trump’s companies, Slim’s spokesman and son-in-law Arturo Elias said. Telecoms magnate Slim is the world’s second-richest man, with a net worth of around $71.1 billion, according to Forbes. Trump is at number 405 on the list, worth $4.1 billion. NBC said on Monday that it would no longer air the ‘Miss USA’ and ‘Miss Universe’ pageants due to his comments.  Spanish-language broadcaster Univision also said on Thursday it would not air the Miss USA pageant.

The next domino to fall in Trump’s empire might be his clothing line at retail mega-chain Macy’s. A MoveOn petition urging the retailer to dump Trump had gained over 700,000 signatures as of Tuesday morning.”

Mexican billionaire praises US president as ‘great negotiator’ but calls for development and employment rather than barrier  The Mexican telecom magnate Carlos Slim has criticized Donald Trump’s plans for a border wall, saying that frontier security would be better achieved through investment and job creation in Mexico. “The best wall is investment, development and employment opportunities,” said Slim, speaking to reporters at a rare press conference. “People leave Mexico in search of opportunities, not because they’re tourists.”

Slim repeatedly lauded Trump on Friday as “a great negotiator” while quoting liberally from his book Great Again: How to Fix Our Crippled America.

Speaking at the end of a week in which relations between the two countries have slumped to a new low, Slim downplayed the potential threat that the Trump administration represents for Mexico. “Trump is not the Terminator. He’s Negotiator,” Slim said. “I don’t see risks. I see opportunity.”

But he offered a subtle critique of the US president’s professed plan to “make America great again”, saying “returning to a glorious past of American industry that made them the world leader in the 20th century will not work”. 

Carlos Slim teams up with Chinese to circumvent Trump Financial Times CNBC 

Jude Webber  Mon, March 27, 2017  “Carlos Slim‘s Giant Motors will begin manufacturing cars in Mexico to sell to Latin America in a joint venture with China’s JAC Motors as some carmakers step up production in the low-cost nation despite Donald Trump’s “America first” policies. Two Chinese-designed and largely Chinese-manufactured sport utility vehicles will be launched on Tuesday as the new venture aims to cash in on Mexico’s booming domestic car market.” Elías Massri, Giant Motors chief executive 4.4bn peso ($230m) investment