Mexican billionaire increases his stake in NYTIMES
Slim increases his stake in NY Times
By David Gelles in New York and Adam Thomson in Mexico City August 23, 2011http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/0e25681a-cdbd-11e0-bb4f-00144feabdc0.html#axzz1Vtta74mR
Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim Helu has increased his stake in the New York Times Company just weeks after the US newspaper group repaid the emergency $250m loan it took from Mr Slim in 2009.
Mr Slim upped his stake from 6.9 per cent to 7.3 per cent through the purchase of 553,000 class A shares, according to a regulatory filing. The new holdings, acquired on August 18 for between $6.83 and $7.09 per share, were purchased by Mr Slim’s Inmobiliaria Carso SA investment fund and came at the end of a volatile week on the stock market.
Mr Slim’s group also increased his stake in Saks, the luxury retailer, from 15.7 per cent to 16 per cent on the same day.
“We are buying because we feel that the shares are at a very good price, and we are increasing our holdings in the two companies,” said Arturo Elias Ayub, Mr Slim’s son-in-law and head of strategic alliances at Telmex, Mr Slim’s fixed-line phone company.
Shares in the New York Times are down 29 per cent from six months ago as the group struggles to balance declining print advertising and circulation with new digital revenues, while shares in Saks are down 26 per cent over the same time.
In 2008, Mr Slim began acquiring shares in the New York Times Company, which publishes its flagship paper along with the Boston Globe and other regional papers, and had acquired 6.9 per cent by the time he made his loan in 2009, when the company faced short-term cash needs in an unfavourable credit market.
Mr Slim bought the most recent shares on the open market and did not exercise the warrants he was granted as part of the loan. People close to the company say Mr Slim has remained a silent shareholder and does not intend to acquire 10 per cent or more of the company, which would require him to file additional information with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
Eduardo García, who follows Mr Slim’s fortune closely on Sentido Comun, his Mexican business publication, says the substantial holding gives Mr Slim a better chance of breaking into the city’s elite circles.
In recent months, Mr Slim has shown increasing interest in New York. Last year, he paid $44m in cash for the Duke-Semens townhouse, one of the only private mansions left on Fifth Avenue. Months later, his holding company announced it was considering taking Sanborns, Mr Slim’s iconic retailer-cum-cafeteria, to the city.
Mr Slim, now 71, is ranked by Forbes magazine as the world’s richest man, with a personal fortune of $74bn, His business interests range from tobacco and mining to banking and retail but most of his wealth stemmed from the acquisition, in 1990, of Telmex, the former state telecommunications monopoly. |
