Reuters | February 8, 2011 | Michael O’Boyle
* America Movil posts 4.7 pct drop in profits
* Surprisingly strong growth in new mobile subscribers
* Bigger stake helps lift Slim’s wealth to about $75 bln (Updates with earnings results, estimate on growth of Slim’s total wealth, rewrites throughout)
Billionaire Carlos Slim’s America Movil posted a 4.7 percent drop in fourth-quarter profit on Tuesday as it wrote off the cost of aging technology, but a surge in new mobile business in Brazil boosted revenue.
America Movil is the biggest source of wealth for Slim, ranked by Forbes magazine last year as the world’s richest man with a fortune of $53.5 billion. But the company’s valuation is now growing at a far slower pace than his smaller-but-sizzling banking, industrial and mining ventures. [ID:nN10147269]
Now one of the world’s biggest telecommunications companies with 225 million wireless customers across Latin America and the United States, America Movil is the jewel in Slim’s empire.
…..