Carlos Slim rejects The Apprentice: World's second richest man will not replace Donald Trump

Carlos Slim may have built a telecoms empire, but the Mexican billionaire wants to world to know that he will not be venturing into reality TV any time soon.

The 75-year-old mogul, who is the second richest man in the world, had been hotly tipped to replace his frenemy Donald Trump on The Apprentice.

But while he may have welcomed the opportunity to get one up on Trump following his anti-Mexico rant, he has no interest in reality TV.

"He's not interested because his foundations and social work already keep him very busy," a representative for Slim told reporters.

In June, Trump was axed from The Apprentice after he made controversial comments referring to Mexican immigrants as ''rapists''.

Announcing his departure in a statement, the firm said: ''Due to the recent derogatory statements by Donald Trump regarding immigrants, NBCUniversal is ending its business relationship with Mr. Trump."

In the wake of the controversy, Slim also severed ties with Trump on a pending project. "We can confirm that we were working on a television project with Trump that has been dropped," a spokesman for Ora TV, Slim's television production studio in Mexico, told CNNMoney.

Lashing out against the his axing, the 69-year-old business magnate slammed the NBC as "weak and foolish".

''If NBC is so weak and foolish to not understand the serious illegal immigration problem in the United States, coupled with the horrendous and unfair trade deals we are making with Mexico, then their contract violating closure of Miss Universe/Miss USA will be determined in court,'' he said in a statement.

The father-of-five – who is running as a presidential candidate in the 2016 US election – later claimed that the network did not support his campaign for the White House.

''[NBC] did not want me to run. They wanted me to do The Apprentice," he said.

''And now with my statements on immigration, which happen to be correct, they are going to take a different stance and that's OK.

''As far as ending the relationship, I have to do that because my view on immigration is much different than the people at NBC.''