Carlos Slim has sold more than $1.15 billion of U.S. oil stocks this year as the Iran war sends crude prices and energy shares higher. The Mexican billionaire has cut his stakes in PBF Energy and Talos Energy roughly in half, yet the shares he still owns are worth about $1.4 billion—roughly what his holdings were worth in January. Much of his estimated $124 billion fortune is tied to telecommunications giant América Móvil.
Slim, the richest man in Mexico, collected around $820 million selling PBF shares over more than 100 trading days. PBF, which operates six U.S. refineries, has gained more than 170% this year, and its third-quarter results released Thursday offered a pretty good explanation. Net income reached $1.53 billion, up from $170 million a year earlier, while its gross refining margin rose to $34.56 per barrel from $9.
The worldwide fuel shortage has been considerably kinder to refiners than to people paying for diesel.
The 86-year-old sold another $252 million of Talos shares in October alone, nearly three-quarters of his Talos sales for the year, according to Bloomberg. October’s Middle East tensions took Talos to a three-year high. His stakes in PBF and Talos now stand at about 11% and 13%, respectively. The sales were conducted through Control Empresarial de Capitales, the investment company he owns with his six children.
The stock sales haven’t stopped Slim from expanding his operations in Mexico. His Grupo Carso conglomerate signed a $1.99 billion contract with Pemex last year to drill up to 32 wells at the Ixachi field in Veracruz. Eight wells have been delivered, with another two to four expected by year-end, according to Carso’s latest quarterly report.
Carso’s oil subsidiary Zamajal reported quarterly sales of 2.98 billion pesos, up 447% from a year earlier, with the Ixachi contract helping drive the increase. Zamajal also owns 17.8% of the offshore Zama field, while Talos retains 4.5%. Slim is trimming his shares of Talos while maintaining a larger direct stake than Talos itself in a Mexican oilfield they both own.
By Julianne Geiger for Oilprice.com
