The billionaire’s family investment company Carlos Slim revealed a participation of 3.2% in UK telecommunications company BT Group Plcwhose new CEO reversed share declines in the last month and increased the dividend.
Slim’s signature, Business Control of Capitales SA de CVcrossed a regulatory threshold requiring it to declare its stake on June 6, BT said in a statement on Wednesday.
Slim, 84, is the seventeenth richest person in the world, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The Mexican tycoon made most of that fortune with América Móvil SAB de CV, the largest mobile operator in Latin America.
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Aside from Slim’s family investment firm, América Móvil is also the largest shareholder of Telekom Austria AG and owns a stake in the Dutch company Royal KPN NV.
A BT representative said he hopes to collaborate with the Slim family’s investment firm and said he welcomes welcome to “any investor that recognizes the long-term value of our business.”
Participation is “just a financial investment, as we usually do in many companies,” he said by phone. Arturo Elías AyubSlim’s spokesperson.
BT’s strategy
The chief executive of BT, Allison Kirkby is working on cutting costs and reversing the British telecommunications company’s share losses. In May, announced a surprise dividend increase, sparking the stock’s biggest rally in 24 years. Kirkby also said his goal was to cut £3 billion (US$3.9 billion) in annual costs by fiscal 2029.
The wealth of Slim was built largely on the success of his telecommunications investments, beginning with the acquisition of Telefonos de México through government privatization in 1990. It acquired telephone companies throughout Latin America and expanded into wireless services with affordable prepaid mobile phone plans, building what eventually became América Móvil . An attempt to expand the business model to Europe, starting in 2013, was less successful.
