Slim overtakes Gates to top world rich list

Carlos "Slim" Helú, the Mexican telecoms magnate, has overtaken Bill Gates to become the world's richest man, according to Fortune magazine, which tracks the world's largest companies.

The billionaire, whose interests range from cigarettes to insurance to hotels to mining, as well as Mexico's dominant fixed-line and mobile phone businesses, has seen his net worth surge to $59bn thanks to the increased value of his publicly traded holding companies.

According to the latest issue of the magazine, that puts him ahead of the Microsoft founder, who has held the crown for more than a decade. Mr Gates is worth an estimated $58bn.

The cigar-puffing Mr Slim inherited a small fortune from his father, an immigrant from Lebanon who ran a general store in Mexico City and began investing in property. But it was the younger Mr Helú's eye for a corporate bargain that sent that legacy into the stratosphere - and his aggressive, critics would say monopolistic, business practices which kept it growing.

He picked up industrial companies at a fraction of their book value when investors fled Mexico after its 1982 financial crisis, and then his political associations helped him win control of the privatised monopoly Telefonos de Mexico in 1990. Today the company still has a market share of 90 per cent, while his mobile arm has a 70 per cent share and Mr Slim has frozen out rival carriers by charging high fees for connecting to his networks. Today the companies are expanding in fast growing countries further south, which together with foreign investor enthusiasm for emerging market plays, has contributed to a near 20 per cent increase in his fortune over the past 18 months.

"Slim is one of a dozen fat cats in Mexico who impede that country's growth because they run monopolies or oligopolies," George Grayson, professor of government at the College of William & Mary, told Fortune. "The Mexican economy is highly inefficient, and it is losing its competitive standing vis-à-vis other countries because of people like Slim."

The 67-year-old tycoon has three sons, who are expected to succeed him.