Slim says America Movil asset sale not just Mexican east coast

By Reuters

Oct 08, 2014 06:30 AM EDT

Billionaire Carlos Slim said on Tuesday that America Movil is trying to sell assets from Mexico's west Coast and the border with the United States, not just the east coast, as part of a previously announced divestiture.

Bloomberg reported in September that America Movil, Latin America's biggest telecommunications company, could unload infrastructure in a strip of states from north to south along Mexico's eastern coast in sales that could be worth up to $17.5 billion.

"It's not the east coast, it's something bigger, it goes to the west Coast and the border... it's a big package," Slim, whose family controls America Movil, told Bloomberg Television in New York on Tuesday.

The planned sale, announced in July, came in response to a sector overhaul aimed at curbing Slim's dominance in Mexican telecoms, where America Movil has about 70 percent of mobile subscribers and more than 60 percent of landlines.

The company wants market share below 50 percent so it can avoid some of the new rules.

When asked in Tuesday's interview if the company was negotiating with AT&T Inc over the sale, Slim declined to comment.

Slim, described by Forbes magazine as the world's richest person, said after the sale announcement in July that it would be a "transversal" cut of the company.

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