In an interview with CNBC's Michelle Caruso-Cabrera ,Carlos Slim, the world's richest man (Current estimate of his woth $70 billion plus), said that he is not going to give half his money to a tax-exempt foundation a la Warren Buffett and Bill Gates.
He wisely told Caruso-Cabrera that he is doing much good by running his businesses and it is not clear turning money over to a foundation would do better.
As for his recent purchase of a mansion on Fifth Avenue in New York for $44 million, he said that it was too big, that it had at least eight floors and he was not planning on living in it. He is going to turn it into several apartments and perhaps lease part of the building to a restaurant at the street level.
Slim said he doesn't like owning homes outside of his country of Mexico because they are too much of a headache. He says he would rather stay in a hotel.
Slim said he is very pleased with his investment in The New York Times, where he has the Sulzbergers in a financial straight jacket. He says, he is not interested in trying to buy the company in the way that Rupert Murdoch bought Wall Street Journal owner Dow Jones. Slim owns 10 million shares and lent the company $250 million with a 14 percent interest rate in late 2009.
He is making $35 million in interest payments alone every year. Plus, he received warrants giving him the rights to 15.9 million shares.
"It was a financial investment. We made a convertible bond, a bond with warrants. We are very happy with the formula," he says.
Slim added, "We are not asking them how the business is going. We are looking from the outside. What they are going to do? What are their plans? We are not asking about that. We know that they are doing a good job."
Good job paying the 14% interest on time, that is.
Here's a clip:
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