Is Carlos Slim, world’s second richest man, investing in Indian telecom?

The world’s second richest man, Carlos Slim, was believed to be in India around two weeks back to explore a partnership between his America Movil and Indian business houses with telecom interests.

America Movil's high-profile chairman, worth $77.1 billion according to Forbes, apparently met Videocon Group Chairman Venugopal Dhoot as well as senior executives of some other mobilephone firms.

Slim, who is referred to as the 'Warren Buffett of Mexico', was quite optimistic about growth opportunities presented by the Indian telecom market, one of the people aware of talks with top Indian executives told Economic Times.

Slim, world’s richest man after Bill Gates, is facing still challenges in Mexico, which is why he is now testing water in India and exploring a partnership between his company and Indian firms.

America Movil, which counts Brazil, the US and Austria as its biggest markets after Mexico, is facing stiff challenges at home. Margins have shrunk to their narrowest since 2013 after a change in law sought to deter a dominant market player, or one that holds more than 50% of the market, from charging competitors for calls on its network.

Although Slim's business interests range across sectors like telecommunications, education, healthcare, industrial manufacturing, food & beverages, real estate, airlines, media, mining, oil, hospitality, entertainment, technology, retail, sports and financial services, the bedrock of his fortune is telecom.

When ET contacted over email, an America Movil spokeswoman said, "We do not have any comments at this time on Mr Slim's visit to India." ET had sought details about Slim's visit, his meetings with heads of Indian telecom operators and American Movil's India plans.

Meanwhile, a top Videocon group executive said that large international telcos looking towards India for growth had evinced an interest to make strategic investments in Videocon Telecom.

But he declined to elaborate on ET's query regarding Slim's meeting with the Videocon Group chairman.

In January this year, Dhoot had told ET that Videocon's telecom unit had received feelers from a Mexican company as well as an Indian telecom player looking to buy a 49% stake.

Industry executives told the financial daily Slim also met senior officials of a Mumbai-based telecom company and Bharti Airtel.


However, an Airtel spokesperson denied the development and rejected the notion that there had been any talk of a likely investment. "We strongly deny these speculations which are completely incorrect, baseless and without an iota of truth," the spokesperson told ET.

(Image: Reuters)