Ukraine's leading English-language newspaper since 1995

Mexico's President Felipe Calderon, left, and Mexican businessman Carlos Slim arrive to inaugurated a private, nonprofit health institute in Mexico City. On March 10, 2010, Forbes announced that Slim claims the title of world's richest person with a net w March 10 (Reuters) - Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim, ranked the world's richest man by Forbes magazine on Wednesday, built his $53.5 billion empire by buying and turning around a creaking state monopoly and myriad other companies.

Here are some facts about the billionaire:

* The son of a Lebanese immigrant businessman whose knack for making money rubbed off on his offspring, Slim bought his first stock a age 12, investing in a Mexican bank that would one day be acquired by Citigroup.

* Slim made a fortune through his 1990 acquisition of state telecoms monopoly Telmex. He has always denied he landed the deal due to a friendship with then-President Carlos Salinas, insisting he does not have partners in politics.

* In recent years, Mexico's government has refused to grant Telmex a license to sell video services, thwarting Slim's hopes of getting into competition with TV companies he says are becoming increasingly powerful in Mexican society.

* Slim is known for his frugal lifestyle but is a cigar enthusiast and avid art collector. He is believed to own one of the largest private collections of sculptures by Auguste Rodin outside France and his daughter runs an art museum in Mexico.

* He has an engineering degree from Mexico's National Autonomous University, where he also taught algebra. He remains a diehard supporter of his college soccer team, Pumas, and is a big baseball fan because of his passion for statistics. (Reporting by Cyntia Barrera Diaz and Noel Randewich, Editing by Eric Walsh)