New York Times’ Biggest Investor, Carlos Slim, Jumping Ship; Sale Valued at Just Under $250 Million

by Joe Simonson

NEW YORK – Mexican billionaire and outspoken critic of President Donald Trump, Carlos Slim, is reportedly selling over half of his shares in The New York Times.

Slim will be left with only an 8 percent stake in the paper, down from 17 percent. The sale, first mentioned in a Dec. 6 statement, was worth $250 million in mandatory exchangeable trust securities.

The sale is part of a series of reductions by Slim. In July, he sold about $10 million of his shares.

Carlos Slim sells off half of New York Times shares for $240M https://t.co/cjkvOynkfi via @nypost

— Joe T (@Twohig1Joe) December 20, 2017

Slim was once seen as a godsend to the paper, which faced similar financial difficulties as other print papers and news media shifts primarily to online. In 2009, he lent the paper’s parent company $250 million in the midst of the financial crisis. By 2015, he was the largest single investor.

Shares have increased by over 50 percent since 2015. Despite the recent success, the paper’s shares were trading at $18.60 by Monday evening — significantly down from its 2002 high of $52.00.

A New York Times spokesperson said that the organization is “grateful for Mr. Slim’s confidence and support of the company,” according to Bloomberg.

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Photo credit: Wally Gobetz; Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)