(Bloomberg) ? Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim took a 5 percent stake in Global Crossing Ltd., a fibre-optic network operator whose shares have dropped by almost two-thirds since the company emerged from bankruptcy in December.

Global Crossing shares jumped as much as 16 percent. Slim, 64, who used his personal fortune to buy stakes in companies such as Saks Inc. and Circuit City Stores Inc. after their stock plunged, had equity holdings together with his immediate family worth $12 billion as of November, Bloomberg data show.

"In general, he looks for companies that have potential for very strong growth or companies that are on the verge of collapse, but that are in industries with a chance of recovery," said Fabiola Molina, an analyst at Casa de Bolsa Banorte SA in Mexico City. "If Slim gets in, other investors will follow, believing the company's chances of turning the corner has improved."

Slim, who controls Latin America's biggest mobile telephone company America Movil SA and Mexico's largest fixed- line phone operator Telefonos de Mexico SA, bought 2 million common shares of Global Crossing, according to a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Slim made the investment through Orient Start Holdings LLC and Inmobiliaria Carso SA, the filing shows.

"If this were something meant to add value to his operations, he would have made the investment directly through Telmex or America Movil," Rogelio Urrutia, a telecommunications analyst at Grupo Financiero Santander Serfin SA in Mexico City, said in an interview. "He makes passive investments in many sectors."

Global Crossing shares rose $1.64, or 12 percent, to $15.45 at 12.25 p.m. in New York, the biggest gain since December 23.

The stock had fallen 60 percent since the company emerged from Chapter 11 in December, after erasing $12 billion in debt and $40 billion in equity.

Global Crossing had used funds raised from bond and equity sales to crisscross the globe with fibre-optic cables that send phone calls and data at high speeds. The price of network space later plunged amid a capacity glut, leaving it unable to meet debt payments.

Slim last year reduced his stake in Circuit City, the second-largest US electronics chain, to 3.8 percent from as much as 9.2 percent after the company's management rejected his $1.5 billion takeover bid. Slim in June offered $8 a share for a controlling stake; the stock climbed to as high as $13 in November.

Slim and his family held as much as 15 percent of retailer Saks before reducing the stake last year to 12 percent, according to SEC filings. Slim and his family first reported a stake in Saks in March 2000 after the shares fell by half the previous year.

Slim's investment in Global Crossing "shows confidence in our future," the Hamilton, Bermuda-based company said in a statement. Arturo Elias, Slim's spokesman in Mexico City, didn't return telephone calls seeking a comment.

Slim will own 9 percent of Global Crossing's 22 million common shares outstanding. With an additional 18 million preferred shares outstanding, Slim will have a 5 percent stake of the company's total equity. Global Crossing said in the statement that majority owner Singapore Technologies Pte's position is unchanged. Singapore Technologies took a majority stake in December., which owns 61.5 percent of Global Crossing, invested $450 million in the company to pull it out of bankruptcy last year. Global Crossing didn't say how much Slim paid for his stake in the statement.

Earlier this month, Slim's Telefonos de Mexico agreed to buy control of Embratel Participacoes SA, Brazil's biggest long- distance telephone company, from WorldCom Inc. for $360 million to expand Slim's telecommunications operations in South America's largest economy. Slim also plans to take an equity stake of as much as 13 percent in Ashburn, Virginia-based WorldCom once the phone company emerges from the largest US bankruptcy, according to a WorldCom bankruptcy filing. Slim owns WorldCom bonds worth almost $1 billion and will take an option to convert them into shares, people familiar with the matter said in January.

WorldCom, the second-biggest US long-distance operator, will change its name to MCI Inc. after it emerges from bankruptcy.

Global Crossing said this month that its main business will have a wider loss, excluding certain costs, this year as sales fall. Global Crossing said it expects 2004 telecommunications revenue of $2.55 billion to $2.7 billion, down from $2.76 billion in 2003. The telecom business will have a loss of as much as $130 million before interest, tax, depreciation, amortisation and stock compensation, widening from $18 million last year, the company said March 10.

Global Crossing said on Friday that the company, its ex- Chairman Gary Winnick and some of its former lawyers will pay $325 million to settle lawsuits brought by investors and employees over the company's collapse two years ago.

The company agreed to resolve claims that Winnick and others inflated revenue by improperly accounting for network- capacity swaps with other carriers, boosting the stock price. The accord calls for $245 million to settle securities-fraud claims and $80 million for pension claims, the company and plaintiffs' lawyers said.

Global Crossing, which Winnick founded in 1997, sought Chapter 11 protection in January 2002 after prices for network space plunged amid a capacity glut, leaving it unable to meet debt payments. The case was the second biggest telecommunications bankruptcy after WorldCom.