TELMEX
"I learned early that in a crisis, the biggest opportunities present themselves. When everyone else is selling, you should be buying." — Carlos Slim
ONE
THE LEDGER
INT. SLIM FAMILY HOME, MEXICO CITY - DAY (1952)
A well-kept home in the Colonia Roma neighborhood. Not wealthy, but dignified. Religious icons on the walls. Arabic calligraphy alongside Mexican folk art. The intersection of two cultures in one household.
CARLOS SLIM, 12, sits at a desk with a leather-bound ledger. He writes numbers in neat columns: his allowance, his earnings from selling candy to classmates, the dividends from the stocks his father helped him purchase. Every peso accounted for. Every centavo tracked.
Mexico City, 1952. Carlos Slim Helú, age 12.
JULIÁN
(entering, looking over Carlos's shoulder)
Your ledger is growing, hijo. What did you earn this week?
YOUNG CARLOS
Forty-two pesos from candy sales. And my Banco Nacional shares paid a dividend of sixteen pesos.
JULIÁN
And what will you do with the money?
YOUNG CARLOS
Buy more shares. The stock is trading below book value. Every peso of dividend I reinvest now will be worth ten pesos in ten years.
JULIÁN
(sitting beside him)
You understand compound interest better than most adults. But remember something: money is not the goal. Independence is the goal. Money is just the tool that buys independence.
SLIM (breaking the fourth wall)
My father came to Mexico from Lebanon in 1902. He was fourteen. He didn't speak Spanish. He had no money. But he had something more valuable: he understood that in a new country, during times of upheaval, the man who keeps his nerve and buys when everyone else is panicking will always prosper. He taught me to see crisis as opportunity. It is the most important thing anyone has ever taught me.
INT. UNAM ENGINEERING SCHOOL, MEXICO CITY - DAY (1961)
A university lecture hall. CARLOS SLIM, now 21, studies civil engineering at UNAM, Mexico's national university. But his true education happens after class, when he teaches algebra to underclassmen and uses the income to buy more stocks.
PROFESSOR
Slim, you have the best mathematics scores in the department. Why civil engineering? You should be in finance.
SLIM
Engineering teaches you to solve problems with limited resources. Finance teaches you to move money around. I prefer solving problems.
PROFESSOR
And the stock portfolio your classmates tell me about?
SLIM
(a slight smile)
That is how I fund the problem-solving.
INT. GRUPO GALAS OFFICE, MEXICO CITY - DAY (1966)
A small office. Slim, 26, has founded his first company: Grupo Galas, a brokerage and investment firm. He sits alone, studying the Mexican stock market, which has been in decline. Most investors are fleeing. Slim is doing the opposite.
Grupo Galas. Founded 1966. Slim's first company.
SLIM
(V.O.)
Mexico in the 1960s was a country of enormous potential and enormous problems. The economy lurched from crisis to crisis. Every few years, a devaluation would wipe out savings, crash the stock market, and send foreign investors running. Most Mexican businessmen hid their money abroad during these crises. I did the opposite. When the market crashed, I bought everything I could. Insurance companies. Mining companies. Construction firms. I bought them at prices so low that even if I was wrong about their potential, the assets alone were worth more than what I paid.
INT. SLIM FAMILY HOME - NIGHT (1967)
Carlos sits across from SOUMAYA DOMIT at a dinner table. Their first formal date. She is elegant, warm, and utterly unimpressed by his balance sheet.
SOUMAYA
So you are the young man my father says is the most boring dinner guest in Mexico City. He says all you talk about is numbers.
SLIM
(embarrassed)
I also talk about engineering.
SOUMAYA
(laughing)
That's worse!
SLIM
What would you like me to talk about?
SOUMAYA
Tell me about Lebanon. Your father's stories. Tell me about the country he left behind.
For the first time in the film, Slim sets aside his calculations. He tells her about his father's village in the mountains above Beirut. About the cedar trees. About a boy who walked to a port with nothing and built a life in a country whose language he didn't speak. Soumaya listens intently. Something passes between them that has nothing to do with compound interest.
CUT TO:
TWO
THE ACQUISITION
INT. MEXICAN GOVERNMENT OFFICES - DAY (1982)
Mexico is in crisis. The peso has collapsed. The government has nationalized the banks. Foreign debt is spiraling. Wealthy Mexicans are moving their money to the United States.
The Mexican Debt Crisis. 1982. The peso loses 80% of its value overnight.
Slim sits in his office, calm. Around him, his staff is panicking. His phone rings constantly — panicked partners, worried investors.
AIDE
Carlos, everyone is selling. The market is in freefall. Should we hedge? Move assets to New York?
SLIM
(studying financial statements)
No. We buy.
AIDE
Buy? Buy what?
SLIM
Everything. Mexican companies are trading at ten cents on the dollar. The country is not going to disappear. The crisis will pass. The companies will recover. And we will own them.
Over the next two years, Slim acquires controlling stakes in a cigarette company, a copper mine, a tire manufacturer, a hotel chain, and an insurance company — all at distressed prices. When the crisis ends, these investments multiply ten and twenty times over.
SLIM (breaking the fourth wall)
People call it vulture investing. I call it patience. A vulture feeds on death. I invest in recovery. I buy companies that are temporarily sick, not terminally ill. The difference is mathematics. You look at the assets, the cash flow, the underlying value. If the value is there, the stock price will eventually follow. You just have to be willing to wait.
INT. PRESIDENTIAL PALACE, MEXICO CITY - DAY (1990)
An ornate government office. President CARLOS SALINAS DE GORTARI sits across from a group of businessmen. He is privatizing state-owned enterprises as part of Mexico's economic reform. The crown jewel: Teléfonos de México — Telmex — the national telephone company.
The Telmex Privatization. 1990. The deal that creates Latin America's richest man.
SALINAS
Gentlemen, Telmex serves fifteen million phone lines across Mexico. The government can no longer afford to run it. We are selling a controlling stake. The bid requirements are simple: the buyer must invest in modernizing the network, must be Mexican-controlled, and must guarantee universal service.
Slim studies the bid documents. The other businessmen shift uncomfortably. The telephone system is notoriously dysfunctional — broken lines, weeks-long wait times for installation, equipment from the 1960s.
RIVAL BIDDER
(to Slim, privately)
Carlos, are you seriously considering this? The system is a disaster. It will cost billions to modernize.
SLIM
You see a disaster. I see fifteen million customers who have no alternative and a government that is giving us a monopoly. The modernization is a cost. The monopoly is a goldmine.
INT. SLIM'S OFFICE - NIGHT (1990)
Late at night. Slim sits with his financial team, structuring the Telmex bid. He has partnered with France Telecom and Southwestern Bell for technical expertise. The bid is $1.76 billion for a 20.4% stake — but with full operational control.
SOUMAYA
(bringing coffee)
You're buying the telephone company? The one that takes three weeks to fix a broken line?
SLIM
Yes.
SOUMAYA
The children's school phone has been broken for a month. They said they'd fix it "eventually."
SLIM
(making a note)
I'll fix it on Day One.
SOUMAYA
(smiling as she leaves)
Now that's worth $1.7 billion.
INT. TELMEX HEADQUARTERS, MEXICO CITY - DAY (1991)
Slim walks through the Telmex headquarters for the first time as the new owner. The building is chaotic. Old equipment. Disorganized staff. Mountains of unprocessed service requests.
TELMEX MANAGER
(nervously)
Sr. Slim, we have a backlog of 400,000 installation requests. Some customers have been waiting two years.
SLIM
(examining the queue system)
How many lines can we install per day?
TELMEX MANAGER
About 1,500.
SLIM
Make it 5,000. Hire the workers. Buy the equipment. I want the backlog cleared in four months.
TELMEX MANAGER
That will cost —
SLIM
Every new line installed is a new customer paying a monthly bill for the rest of their lives. The cost pays for itself in eighteen months. The profit continues for decades. Clear the backlog.
Under Slim's ownership, Telmex installs more phone lines in two years than the government installed in the previous decade. Revenue doubles. Then triples. The monopoly prints money.
INT. CONGRESSIONAL HEARING, MEXICO CITY - DAY (1996)
A heated government hearing. Mexican politicians grill Slim's representatives about Telmex's prices. Mexican phone rates are among the highest in Latin America. Consumer groups are protesting.
SENATOR
Telmex charges Mexican citizens three times what Americans pay for the same phone call. Sr. Slim has a monopoly, and he is using it to extract wealth from the people.
SLIM REPRESENTATIVE
Telmex has invested $14 billion in modernizing the network. When we acquired the company, there were five phone lines per hundred Mexicans. Now there are twelve. We have tripled the network capacity.
SENATOR
And tripled your profits.
SLIM
(V.O.)
They accused me of being a monopolist. They were right — I had a monopoly. But monopolies are not illegal if you earn them through investment and competition. I did not create the monopoly. The government created it. I bought it. And I invested more in Mexico's telecommunications infrastructure than any entity in history. The question is not whether I profited. The question is whether Mexico benefited. It did.
DISSOLVE TO:
THREE
THE RICHEST MAN IN THE WORLD
INT. SLIM FAMILY HOME - NIGHT (1999)
A private room. Soumaya lies in bed, gravely ill. Kidney disease has ravaged her body. Carlos sits beside her, holding her hand. Their children — CARLOS JR., MARCO ANTONIO, PATRICK, SOUMAYA JR., VANESSA, and JOHANNA — gather nearby.
SOUMAYA
(weakly)
Carlos. Promise me you will take care of the art.
SLIM
(his voice breaking)
I will take care of everything. I promise.
SOUMAYA
Not everything. The art. The museum. You promised me a museum. For the people.
Slim nods. He cannot speak. Soumaya dies on March 7, 1999. She is 51 years old. Slim is devastated. He will never remarry. He will build her museum.
Museo Soumaya. Built by Carlos Slim in memory of his wife. Houses 66,000 works of art. Free admission to the public. Forever.
INT. AMÉRICA MÓVIL HEADQUARTERS - DAY (2000)
A war room. Slim and his sons are expanding Telmex's mobile division, América Móvil, across Latin America. Maps show cell tower coverage spreading across Colombia, Brazil, Argentina, Ecuador. They are building the continent's largest mobile network.
CARLOS SLIM DOMIT
Papá, we're now the largest mobile carrier in seventeen countries. 250 million subscribers. But the regulatory challenges are enormous. Every country has different rules, different spectrum allocations —
SLIM
Every country also has a growing population that wants a cell phone. The regulations are temporary. The demand is permanent.
CARLOS SLIM DOMIT
The press is calling you a modern-day robber baron. They say you're building a telephone empire across the continent.
SLIM
(looking at the map)
I am connecting a continent. Whether they call it an empire or a service is their problem, not mine.
INT. FORBES MAGAZINE OFFICE, NEW YORK - DAY (2010)
A cluttered editorial office. FORBES EDITOR reviews the latest billionaire rankings. He calls over his staff.
FORBES EDITOR
It's official. Carlos Slim Helú is the richest person in the world. Net worth: $53.5 billion. He's passed Bill Gates and Warren Buffett.
FORBES REPORTER
A Mexican telecoms mogul is the richest person on earth? That's going to be a headline.
FORBES EDITOR
It's the first time someone from the developing world has topped the list. The story writes itself.
Forbes Rich List, 2010. Carlos Slim Helú: #1. Net worth: $53.5 billion. The richest man in the world.
INT. NEW YORK TIMES OFFICES - DAY (2009)
The New York Times is in crisis. Advertising revenue has collapsed. The company is burning cash. It may not survive. ARTHUR SULZBERGER JR., the publisher, picks up the phone.
SULZBERGER
(into phone)
Mr. Slim, thank you for taking my call. As you may know, The Times is facing a financial challenge —
SLIM
(on phone)
You need money. How much?
SULZBERGER
$250 million. It would be structured as a loan with warrants —
SLIM
The terms?
SULZBERGER
14% interest. Plus warrants for 15.9 million shares.
SLIM
I'll do it.
SULZBERGER
(surprised by the speed)
You don't want to review the financials?
SLIM
I already have. The New York Times is the most important newspaper in the world. It will survive. The question is whether it survives with my help or without it. With my help, I make money. Without it, the world loses something irreplaceable. Both reasons are sufficient.
The loan saves The New York Times. Slim's investment eventually returns over $200 million in profit. Critics accuse him of trying to influence American media. He ignores them.
INT. SLIM'S OFFICE, MEXICO CITY - DAY (2012)
A reporter has been granted an extraordinarily rare interview. Slim sits behind a desk piled with papers, calculators, and notebooks. No computer. He still does most of his analysis on paper.
REPORTER
You are the richest man in the world. You control 70% of Mexico's mobile market and 80% of its landlines. Critics say you are a monopolist who has gotten rich at the expense of the Mexican people. How do you respond?
SLIM
(calmly)
I respond with numbers. When I bought Telmex, there were six million phone lines in Mexico for a population of 85 million. Today there are over 100 million mobile connections for 120 million people. We invested over $50 billion in infrastructure. We connected Mexico. Whether someone becomes wealthy doing that is irrelevant. What matters is that a farmer in Oaxaca can now call his daughter in Mexico City. That did not happen before me.
REPORTER
But the prices —
SLIM
The prices are set by the market and by the regulator. If the regulator wants lower prices, they should create more competition. I welcome competition. Competition makes everyone better. But I will not apologize for building something that works.
CUT TO:
FOUR
THE FOUNDATION
EXT. MUSEO SOUMAYA, MEXICO CITY - DAY (2011)
A stunning silver building in the Plaza Carso district. The Museo Soumaya, designed like a shimmering anvil covered in 16,000 hexagonal aluminum tiles. It is the most striking piece of architecture in Mexico City. People line up around the block.
Museo Soumaya. 66,000 works of art. The largest collection of Rodin sculptures outside France. Admission: free. Always.
Slim walks through the museum's galleries. He passes Rodin sculptures, Dali paintings, Mexican murals. He stops before a portrait of Soumaya.
SLIM
(V.O.)
She wanted a museum for the people. Not a museum for the rich. Not a museum that charges admission. A museum where a bus driver's daughter can stand in front of a Rodin and feel something beautiful. That is what I built. And I would trade every peso I have to show it to her.
INT. FUNDACIÓN CARLOS SLIM OFFICES - DAY (2015)
A working meeting. Slim with his foundation administrators. Health programs. Education initiatives. Organ transplant funding. Disaster relief. The Fundación Carlos Slim has spent billions across Latin America.
FOUNDATION DIRECTOR
Our education platform, Aprende, now serves four million students across Latin America. The health program has funded organ transplants for 15,000 Mexicans who couldn't afford them.
SLIM
The organ transplant program — what is the wait time?
FOUNDATION DIRECTOR
Six months for funding approval.
SLIM
Make it sixty days. People die waiting for paperwork. The paperwork is the problem we can solve.
INT. SLIM'S HOME, MEXICO CITY - EVENING (PRESENT DAY)
Slim sits in his study. He is in his mid-eighties. The room is filled with books, art, and family photographs. His six children and their families are gathered for dinner. The grandchildren run through the house.
Carlos Slim Domit enters.
CARLOS SLIM DOMIT
Papá, the quarterly numbers for América Móvil are strong. Subscriber growth in Brazil and Colombia exceeded forecasts.
SLIM
Good. And the foundation?
CARLOS SLIM DOMIT
The new hospital program in Chiapas opens next month.
SLIM
(nodding)
That matters more.
CARLOS SLIM DOMIT
More than the quarterly numbers?
SLIM
(looking at the photograph of Soumaya on his desk)
More than everything. Your mother understood that. Wealth without purpose is just a number. A large number, but still just a number. The hospital in Chiapas will save lives. That is not a number. That is the point.
EXT. MEXICO CITY SKYLINE - DUSK (PRESENT)
The sun sets over Mexico City. Twenty-two million people. A forest of cell towers — most of them carrying Slim's signal. The Museo Soumaya glows silver in the fading light.
SLIM
(V.O.)
They call me the richest man in Mexico. They used to call me the richest man in the world. These titles mean nothing to me. What matters is this: my father came to this country with nothing. He built a business. He raised a family. He taught me that wealth is not what you accumulate. It is what you build, what you connect, and what you leave behind. I built a telephone network. I connected a continent. And I leave behind a museum with my wife's name on it that any person in Mexico can walk into for free.
The camera pulls back over the city, the towers blinking, the museum shining, twenty-two million voices talking to each other on the network that one Lebanese-Mexican immigrant's son built.
FADE TO BLACK.
Carlos Slim Helú was the richest person in the world from 2010 to 2013, with a peak net worth exceeding $73 billion. América Móvil serves over 300 million wireless subscribers across Latin America. Telmex remains Mexico's dominant telecommunications provider, though regulatory reforms have introduced greater competition. The Museo Soumaya has welcomed over 10 million visitors since opening in 2011, all without charging admission. The Fundación Carlos Slim has invested over $4 billion in education, health, and disaster relief across Latin America. Slim's $250 million investment in The New York Times saved the newspaper from potential bankruptcy and earned him a substantial profit. He has six children and has never remarried after Soumaya's death in 1999. He still works from the same office in Mexico City. He still does his calculations on paper.
Suggested Director: Alfonso Cuarón. Suggested Composer: Gustavo Santaolalla.
THE END