Mexicans amongst the millionaires’ world lists

The financial magazines Forbes, Fortune, Expansion, and others whose mission is to disseminate financial information about companies, businesses and wealthy people, have had since some years ago some Mexicans in their "top list" of millionaires. Leaving the companies aside, personalities who have appeared on the lists of the richest people in the world, deserve a brief mention of their profile:

Carlos Slim, has topped the charts three times as the wealthiest man on earth. This Mexican businessman has very profitable companies such as Telmex (Mexico's largest telephone company), Telcel (with the highest participatory percentage in the mobile market), Prodigy (the largest Internet service provider), Sanborn’s (well-known store-restaurant) or the Financial Group Inbursa (banking, insurance, investments, and more) amongst others. The financial consortium in which it participates as a senior partner is Carso Group. One of the keys to his success in business is his ability to invest in difficult times, since it has weathered the economic crisis in the country and, even though his investments are focused in Mexico, he also has equity securities in foreign companies in which Apple, The New York Times and Philip Morris are part of.

In 2011, his fortune reached 74 billion dollars. He is also a great philanthropist, as evidenced by the creation of the Soumaya Museum –to honor the memory of his deceased wife-, the contributions made to the renovations of historic buildings and the activities by the Telmex Foundation.


Germán Larrea Mota Velasco: CEO of Grupo Mexico, the largest mining corporation in the country and fourth largest in the world. Grupo Mexico produces more than 80% of the copper that Mexico exports. Other minerals in which Grupo Mexico specializes are silver and zinc. This company has divisions like Ferromex, which operates the largest fleet of freight trains in the country. It also owns the most famous cinema chain in the country: Cinemex. Like Slim, his investments transcend borders, thus he has mines in Peru. His fortune is valued at approx. $16 thousand million dollars. It is worth to mention that, unlike other millionaires, he is very reserved in his personal life (and the same in business) to the extent that there are not too many photos in which he appears. He has still a share in Banamex bank (sold to Citigroup).

Alberto Bailleres González.- His fortune (estimated at just under 12 billion dollars) comes from companies that specialize in many industries. His financial consortium is Group Bal, which reports annual sales of more than 9000 million dollars. Some of the companies comprising the Group Bal are: Palacio de Hierro (department store), Peñoles Industries (focused on mining, producing primarily lead), Grupo Nacional Provincial (GNP, leading insurer in Mexico) and Valmex (financial services and brokerage firm focused on the Mexican market). He also has stocks in the medical field, in utilities, agriculture and music.

The ITAM (Instituto Tecnológico Autónomo de México) is one of the most prestigious private universities in the world of business, and has a generous sponsorship by Alberto Bailleres González.


Other millionaires .- Surprising cases and worth to enter the lists of the richest men in the world are those of Ricardo Salinas Pliego (CEO of Grupo Salinas, which includes TV Azteca, Elektra, and more) whose wealth is estimated in 8.200 million dollars, Jerónimo Arango with a fortune of 4000 million dollars and partner of Wal-mart.

Special mention deserves the criminal Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzmán, leader of the Sinaloa Cartel and who (because of the illegality of his activities is difficult to estimate his fortune) is said to have a fortune that easily exceeds one billion dollars!



Article produced by the team of Explorando México
Photo: Wikipedia.org