Casos Practicos De Finanzas

Yo Quiero Todo Bell

Telmex tycoon Carlos Slim Helù controls Mexico's local phone service, long distance, and Net access, not to mention half of the nation's stock market. Now he's set his sights north of the border.
By Jonathan Kandell
Not a day goes by without almost every Mexican consumer paying tribute to Carlos Slim Helù, Latin America's richest individual. The scope of his influence isunquestionably vast. It is felt in the marketplace of El Nith, an Otomi Indian village a few hours from Mexico City, where a dozen campesinos line up to use the pay phones operated by Telmex, Slim's telecom near-monopoly. In Guadalajara, middle-class shoppers crowd into a local branch of Sears, the American retail giant whose Mexican subsidiary is owned by Slim. And the myriad Sanborns, thecountry's most popular gift shop and restaurant chain, are also owned by Slim. The freeways in Mexico City are clogged with vehicles riding on tires produced in Slim-owned factories. The drivers are en route to offices and homes whose infrastructures rely on metal products churned out by Slim companies, and whose loans are financed by Slim's Grupo Financiero Inbursa - which also sells them insurance andinvests their savings in mutual funds and pension plans. And the majority of Mexicans who surf the Web depend on Slim for their Internet access. Slim companies racked up $16 billion in sales in 1999, and together make up almost half the value of the Bolsa, Mexico's stock exchange. Meanwhile, Slim is personally worth about $10 billion. Every two minutes, he makes $5,000 - more than the averageMexican earns in a year.
Still, if his name doesn't ring a bell, you're not alone. Slim is largely unknown outside Mexico - except, that is, in telecommunications, where multinational giants AT&T and WorldCom consider him a ruthless, gouging monopolist who is stifling competition at the expense of the Mexican people. "Competitive carriers in Mexico have essentially been mugged by Telmex - which hasused its monopoly position to maintain its stranglehold on Mexican consumers," a typical WorldCom statement claimed last spring. In early November, the US government announced that it would file an official complaint with the WTO, alleging that Mexico is violating its obligations by failing to curb Telmex. "Long distance operators continue to face serious barriers to competition in the Mexicanmarket and the time has come to face this matter in the WTO," says US trade representative Charlene Barshefsky. "The situation has persisted too long." The USTR's decision prompted some even stronger rhetoric from WorldCom: "As long as the Mexican Government allows Telmex to stifle competition, Mexico will miss out on the advantages of the global information economy."
At any time in the lasthalf-century, such complaints would have undoubtedly fallen on deaf ears, but for the American telcos, the recent inauguration of Mexican president Vicente Fox, leader of the center-right National Action Party (PAN), offers a ray of hope. Fox's election brings to an end seven decades of often-corrupt rule by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) - an era during which strong political connectionswere considered business as usual. As part of his platform of economic reform, Fox has promised to bolster relations with the US and sever the cozy ties between politicians and Mexico's leading magnates. Making good on that pledge would likely mean butting heads with the magnate most closely identified with the PRI: Carlos Slim.
Though he has never publicly mentioned Slim by name, Fox has madedeclarations that appear to be aimed at the tycoon. Fox says he wants to foster increased competition to make telecommunications, including Net services, cheaper and more accessible. As a result, Slim may now have to deal with stronger, more independent regulators and judges who disapprove of monopolistic behavior. "Until now, Slim has been widely viewed as a powerful tycoon who is politically...