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The 10 Richest People in Mexico

Carlos Slim

Mexico is a country that is located in North America. After Argentina and Brazil, it is the third largest country in Latin America, the nation has extreme poverty and wealth levels. The middle class forms a small percentage of the population. There are two distinct economic classes- affluent investors and landowners and the rural and urban masses- who emerged in poverty. The country's top economic class is known for exploiting the poor. Nevertheless, some individuals and families have amassed much wealth, and we shall discuss the top ten. A Federal Government administers Mexico with two legislative houses-the Senate and the Chamber of Deputies.

10. Carlos Hank Rhon ($2.6 billion)

Carlos Hank Rhon was born to Carlos Hank Gonzalez, a politician with criminal records. He is a graduate of Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico. His father served as the Mexico City mayor, governor of the state home, and the Secretary of Agriculture. In 2017 his company, Mexico's Grupo Banorte, said that it paid $1.4 billion shillings in cash and stock to acquire Hank Rhino's Grupo Financiero Interacciones.

He is married to the daughter of Roberto Gonzalez, who is credited with the formation of Grupo Banorte. Together they have three children. In general, the billionaire has invested in manufacturing, construction, tourism, energy, and auto dealerships. His money is attributed mainly to Grupo Hermes, which offers day-to-day leadership. His wealth increased between 2003 and 2015, where it dropped in 2017 before gaining momentum in 2020 to the current position.

9. Karen Virginia Beckmann Legoretta ($2.6 billion)

The company has a history of 250 years and has been handed over from one generation to another. According to the latest rankings by Forbes, Karen Virginia Beckmann Legoretta, inherited a 36 percent stake in Becle S.A.B, which is the maker of Jose Cuervo tequila, from her father Juan Francisco Beckmann Vidal. In addition, she serves on the company board, where her brother Juan Domingo Beckmann Legorreta is the CEO ($3.8 billion).

8. Antonio Del Valle Ruiz ($3.0 billion)

Antonio Del Valle Ruiz is a Mexican billionaire with a vested interest in banking and industrialization. He is among the billionaires who survived the nationalization of the 1980s and the mid-1990s. He was born in 1939 in Mexico City, where he still resides. The billionaire is married with five children. In 2002, he decided to sell Grupo Financiero Bital to HSBC Holdings. He currently holds shares in Grupo Financiero BX+, a new banking business, and the Spanish bank Popular Espanol.

In addition to banking, he has acquired shares in manifold industrial producers. Antonio Del Vale Ruiz is married with six children, who together have a $4 billion stake in chemical company Mexichem. Mexichem is one of the world's largest makers of plastic tubes, whose market value is $7.8 billion. In addition, he has shares in the Chemical distributor Grupo Pochteca. He currently serves as honorary chairman of several companies, whereas his children undertake the day-to-day operations. In 2015, together with a business partner, Carlos Slim (the wealthiest man in Mexico), they did an IPO of their construction conglomerate, Elementia.

7. Rufino Vigil Gonzalez ($3.3 billion)

Rufino Vigil Gonzalez was born in 1948 in Mexico. In the rise of his wealth, the Business magnate has engaged in the formation of several companies. In 1991, he founded the Industries CH Vigil; up to this date, he is the president of Industrial CH, a steel production and processing firm with an annual 5 million tons.  His business holds a 64 percent share. In 1999, it joined another steel company, Group Ruvi.

In 2001, he purchased 82.5 % of Grupo Simec, a steelmaker that had plants in Guadalajara and Mexicali. The corporation has 24 steel manufacturing and processing operations, most located in Mexico and eight others in the United States and Canada. His life has not fallen short of controversy; on June 21, 2010, a judge issued an arrest warrant against him. Rufino Vigil Gonzalez is married and has four children. Forbes describes him as a self-made billionaire who excelled in the steel industry.

6. Juan Domingo Beckmann Legorreta ($4.1 billion)

Juan Domingo Beckmann is a Mexican businessman who is also CEO and owns 30% of the company, and his father and sister own 55 % of the shares. He was born in Universidad Anahuac, Spain, 54 years and he holds a Business Administration and Master's degree in marketing from the Universidad Anahuac. He is one of the most leading influential Mexican billionaires who are not shy from portraying his lifestyle to the public. The company he serves as the CEO of has been in operation for more than 240 years. He is a great lover of celebrations, and he tested positive for COVID-19 in March 2020 when he was holding a party in his honor in Tequila, Jalisco.

5. Maria Asuncion Aramburuzabala ($6.2 billion)

Maria Asuncion Aramburuzabala, also known as "Mariasum," has earned herself the tag of 'Mexico's beer queen." She was born in May 1963, and up to date, she has been married twice and divorced, and from the marriages, she has two children. After the unexpected death of her father, Paul Aramburuzabala Ocaranza, in 1995, she teamed up with her mother and sister to fight off companies trying to take their family beer company, Modelo. Her grandfather founded the company in 1925.

When they took over the business, they started Tresalia and invested in other fields such as technology infrastructure, real estate development, land reverses, and telecommunications. Apart from Tresalia, she has been actively investing in leading Mexican companies through venture capital and private equity firms. Between 2003 and 2006, she was the first woman to serve as a director in the Mexican Stock Exchange Bureau. Maria is the president of KIO Networks, Network Abilia Universalia, and the Councils of Tresalia Capital. In addition, she is a philanthropist who uses her Fundación Grupo Modelo to advance responsible alcohol consumption, community service, and environmental care.

4. Alejandro Bailleres Gual & Family ($9 billion)

Though the billionaire died in February 2022, several properties are still owned under his name and by family members. He was born on August 22, 1931, in Mexico City. He attended the Culver Military Academy in Culver, Indiana, at a young age. Gual studied at the Instituto Tecnologico Autonomo de Mexico, where he graduated with a B.A in Economics. His main area of specialization was mining, insurance, beverages, finance, and retail. The billionaire's father founded the institution. Dumped as the "silver king," the billionaire took over Grupo BAL's leadership after his father's death.

The billionaire was the founder of Ptrobal, the first private oil company in many years. Upon the death of Bailleres, the Mexican president applauded him on his contributions to the growth of Mexico's economy. This was attributed to the fact that he openly supported the election of President Lopez Obrador. His wife, Teresa Gaul, had seven children. His son, Alejandro Bailleres, took over the leadership of Grupo Bal, a role he had taken when his father stepped down in April 2021, citing health issues.

3. Ricardo Salinas Pliego & family ($10.7 billion)

Ricardo Salinas Pliego was born in Monterrey, Mexico in 1955. He schooled at Tecnologico de Monterrey before attending Tulane University, where he graduated with an MBA. His wealth is attributed to his great-grandfather's company, Grupo Elektra. The company started as a furniture enterprise named Salinas & Rocha in 1905. Through various modifications, the company expanded into consumer appliances, televisions, radio, consumer finance, and retail. When his father stepped down in 1987, Ricardo took over as the company's CEO.

Elektra Electronics has been criticized for selling electronics and home appliances to Mexicans of low income and allowing them to pay in installments, a step critics say is a circumnavigated way of loaning the poor without their explicit consent. In 1993, Ricardo won an auction to own the Imevision, a previously state-owned Tv Station that he later renamed Tv Azteca. In the deal, Ricardo is reported to have paid R$ 645 million. The Tv station has become the most potent and integrated channel in the world, with viewership in America and Spanish-speaking countries. In 2003, Salinas bought Iusacell, the first cell phone company in Mexico, and later merged it with his Uinefon, a giant telecommunications company. In 2017, Salinas sold the Azteca to the America HC2 Network Inc. He continues to invest in any opportunity.

2. German Larraea Mota Velasco & Family ($23.9 billion)

German Larrea Mota Velasco was born in 1941 in Mexico City, Mexico. He has a sense of not being seen or photographed in public. Together with the family, they hold a majority shareholder at Grupo Mexico, the country's largest mining and infrastructure company. The company has three central units, namely: Americas Mining Corporation, which has mining interests in Mexico, Peru, Infraestructura Transporters Mexico (ITM)-which owns two railway lines, and the Asarco, whose jurisdiction is the U.S. He also has interests in air transport through a 16 % ownership of the Grupo Aerortuario del Pacifico.

The airline primarily operates on the west coast of Mexico. In August of 2014, his mining company was scrutinized after locals at one of the largest copper mines in the northern Mexican state of Sonora accused it of contaminating two community rivers. It opted to settle the matter out of the court with the government and paid $150 million towards a compensation trust for those affected by the contamination. The other part of the family wealth is held under his mother's name, Sara Mota de Larrea, and his father's widow, Jorge Larrea Ortega.

1. Carlos Slim Helu & family ($78.5 billion)

Carlos Slim was born to Lebanese immigrants who settled in Mexico. He is a self-made billionaire who founded and became the chair and CEO of telecom giant America Movil. Compared to other Mexican billionaires, he lives a simple life and appears in public only when the need arises. To ensure that his empire is in continuous growth, the billionaire keeps investing in every sector he has found an opportunity. According to Investopedia, Carlos Slim holds stakes in several Mexican companies through a subsidiary, Grupo Carso.

His areas of interest are construction, real estate, media, airlines, technology, restaurants, retailing, finance, and industrial production. In Mexico City, the billionaire owns more than twenty shopping centers that operate leading brands such as Saks, Sears, Coffee Factory, and Fifth Avenue. The billionaire admires driving himself through the city using his four-by-four Mercedes Benz. Though he has several private jets, he is unknown to using commercial air transport. Growing old, the billionaire has started to transfer part of his wealth to children. One of his finest properties is a Duke Semans Mansion which he purchased in 2010 in New York, and it boasts a cost of $44 million. He has contributed more than $100 million to several charities through the Fundación Carlos Slim organization.

What Are Some of The Common Characteristics of the Top 10 Richest People in Mexico 2022?

A careful analysis of Mexico's top 10 wealthiest people reveals a clear image of how businesses can be handed over from one generation. Whereas this has failed in many parts of the world, it forms a fundamental question of research by economics students. It is also observed that every generation taking over a business tries to add value by diversifying or changing the nature of the top products. However, the billionaires have not fallen short of being criticized or taken the polarized nature of Mexican politics to sponsor suspected criminals in government to protect their interests. Various European media outlets have accused them of exploiting the poor by failing to observe compliance issues related to salaries and health and safety laws.

Allen Lee

Written by Allen Lee

Allen Lee is a Toronto-based freelance writer who studied business in school but has since turned to other pursuits. He spends more time than is perhaps wise with his eyes fixed on a screen either reading history books, keeping up with international news, or playing the latest releases on the Steam platform, which serve as the subject matter for much of his writing output. Currently, Lee is practicing the smidgen of Chinese that he picked up while visiting the Chinese mainland in hopes of someday being able to read certain historical texts in their original language.

Read more posts by Allen Lee

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