Slim’s hardline tactics seen in KPN retreat
When Mexican telecoms billionaire Carlos Slim failed to buy part of Telecom Italia in 2007, he told the FT in an interview that overseas expansion was "a question of circumstance. You cannot plan those things." Indeed not. Less than a month ago, he was tentatively pencilling in October to launch his planned América Móvil takeover bid for KPN of the Netherlands. This week, he scrapped it. It was a rare climbdown for the self-made billionaire whose reputation for seldom putting a foot wrong has bestowed on him the aura of a Mexican Midas. The son of Lebanese immigrants, Carlos Slim was already keeping his personal accounts by the age of 12, and investments in banking stocks helped him amass a fortune of 5m pesos ($391,000) by the age of 26, not counting his inheritance. His net worth today is $73bn, according to Forbes. He and Bill Gates vie for the top spot as the richest man on earth, yet Mr Slim is a modest mogul, unwilling to swap the home where he raised six children for an expensive mansion, and, according to biographer José Martínez, wears suits bought from Sears; he owns the Mexican arm of the US department store chain. Mr Slim learned his business smarts from his retailer father, who died when he was 13. Mr Slim senior’s meticulousness once led him to challenge the prices his supplier was charging for safety pins, on the grounds that he had been given a bigger discount the previous year. That kind of hardheadedness was evident in Mr Slim’s decision to walk away from what had become a rollercoaster Dutch adventure after the independent foundation that controls KPN held out for a higher price than he was prepared to pay. The setback, which could yet prove temporary if he decides to return to the table at a later date, reinforces his reputation as a man who sticks to his guns and is proud of never having raised the terms of an offer he has made. Arturo Elías Ayub, his son-in-law, describes Mr Slim as a man who "always sees the good side of things". But it must still have been difficult for him to see the silver lining in the collapse of KPN’s share price from the €8 at which he bought a 30 per cent stake to just over €2 now. Mr Slim is known as a long-term investor, so some in the market expect him to sit tight on his KPN investment for now. Meanwhile, he is free to focus his attention on another of his ambitions – his interest in Telecom Italia’s Brazilian mobile unit, which could soon be put up for sale. Mr Slim’s empire extends far beyond telecoms into banking, tobacco and other businesses, but the day-to-day running of his operations is in the hands of his close-knit family, freeing him up to focus on wider strategy. Mr Slim’s KPN adventure may not have come to much so far, but as many who have dealt with him in the past can attest, it never pays to underestimate Carlos Slim.