Argentina: Milei made a career at an airport giant – 12/10/2023 – Market

A businessman who controls the country’s largest airports, a former president who knew him since childhood and an economist who would become famous for his histrionic appearances on TV.

The unlikely mix united the destinies of Argentina’s elected president, Javier Milei, who takes office this Sunday (10), infrastructure billionaire Eduardo Eurnekian and former president Mauricio Macri.

Eurnekian, 91, is the founder of the Corporación America conglomerate and is among the richest people in Argentina, with an estimated fortune of US$1.9 billion (R$9.4 billion), according to Forbes.

The businessman of Armenian origin came from the textile sector and built his fortune through pay TV channels and the management of airport terminals in different countries.

Just the arm of the group linked to airport management, Corporación América Airports, had revenue of more than US$1.2 billion (R$5.9 billion) last year, and is linked to two terminals in Brazil.

In 2011, the Inframérica consortium, which also included Engevix and which participated in the country’s first concession auction, won the dispute for the construction, maintenance and operation of the São Gonçalo do Amarante airport (in Greater Natal).

At the beginning of 2012, it still had a 51% stake in the concession to operate, renovate and expand Brasília airport for 25 years.

Investigated by the Lava Jato operation, the construction company Engevix sold its stake in the airports to Corporación América in 2015. Later, Inframérica requested the return of Natal airport, which was re-bid in 2023 to Zurich Airport Internacional and should now only be left with the terminal of the federal capital.

Since 2018, Corporación América’s airport division has been listed on the New York Stock Exchange and includes 53 terminals in six countries, which received 65.6 million passengers in 2022.

The conglomerate operates in the areas of energy, infrastructure, agribusiness, mining, technology and the real estate, banking and wine sectors. It also has investments in Uruguay, Ecuador, Italy and Armenia.

Javier Milei worked in different companies in the group from 2009 to 2021. He was one of those responsible for analyzing new investments and left the company to run for national deputy.

According to the unauthorized biography “El Loco”, by journalist Juan Luis González, there is a lot of Eurnekian’s world in the future president’s political circle.

According to the author, Milei from the Corporación América years was someone who never spoke about politics or claimed the country’s last military dictatorship — contrary to what he did in a debate that preceded the first round of the election.

On the occasion, the ultra-liberal evoked his deputy, Victoria Villaruel, when saying that there were excesses on both sides in the resistance to the military regime and denied that the number of missing people in the country is 30 thousand people (as stated by entities linked to human rights).

The book narrates a tense meeting between Eurnekian and Macri, months before the 2015 elections. Still as a child, the future president met the businessman, who was a friend of his father, Franco.

On the eve of taking over the Casa Rosada, he reportedly told the executive to give up investments in China and Russia and focus on countries closer to the influence of the United States — the ideological focus of the new government.

“There was an elephant in the room, which was the fear that the future government would take the concession of Ezeiza airport (in Greater Buenos Aires) and Aeroparque (in the capital). To this day, Eurnekian is convinced that, if the government did not managed to take control of these terminals away from him, it was only because he couldn’t find a legal loophole”, writes the journalist.

Corporación América’s Communications Director, Carolina Barros, refutes what is recorded in the chapter of the book that deals with Eurnekian’s relationship with Macri and Milei.

“It is speculation and imagination of the author, who never consulted the company’s communications department, Mr. Eurnekian or me, his spokesperson.”

“Interestingly, the author is a journalist for Perfil, a media outlet with which we have an excellent relationship and open doors”, continues the spokesperson.

“Eurnekian pushes Milei into the media, in his open war against the Macri government. It is impossible not to relate the two things. Both Macri and he are skilled men of power”, says González to Sheet.

On TV debate programs, the libertarian became famous for his catchphrases and discussions with other guests. And also for criticizing Mauricio Macri and his chief of staff at the time, Marcos Peña.

“Macri is a criminal and a swindler, he wants to steal the flags of freedom”, shouted Milei on the Argentine channel A24. “When he talks about reforming the State, the work system and economic opening, [não diz que] placed a socialist chief of staff.”

“One thing is what he says and another is what he does when he is in power, I still haven’t managed to understand who the real Macri is […] To be part of an alliance that is doomed to fail, I prefer to keep my distance”, said the then deputy in 2022 to the channel Todo Notícias.

During the 2023 campaign, Eurnekian gave an interview to the Financial Times newspaper, in which he stated that he trusted Milei, but made an important reservation: “I think he would be a great president, but I don’t want the dollar,” he said.

The businessman classified dollarization, one of the candidate’s main slogans during the campaign, as a “simplification” of the country’s problems. “It seems ridiculous to adopt the dollar just because we haven’t been able to manage our currency.”

Political chess would mean that Milei would find an important ally in Macri to reach the Presidency by beating the Minister of Economy, Sergio Massa, in the second round.

After being elected, he confirmed two former Macri ministers in key positions in his future government: the defeated candidate Patricia Bullrich will once again be Minister of Security and Luis Caputo will command the Economy.

The new government must count on other characters who have Corporación América on their CV, such as Nicolás Posse (Head of Cabinet), Mariano Cúneo Libarona (Justice) and Guillermo Francos (Interior).

For González, this is due more to Milei’s lack of options than to the company’s influence.

“A great feature of Milei’s life is loneliness, and he doesn’t have people to fill all the State functions. It doesn’t suit Eurnekian to have a government that puts an end to public works, when the company has so many contracts with the State or stay related to a president who could end badly.”

With Milei’s victory, dollarization disappeared from his speeches, and among Argentine businesspeople there is already the conviction that Caputo’s move to the ministry will make him give up on the idea. Political analysts are now trying to assess the weight that Macri will have over the next four years and whether the alliance between them will last.

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X-RAY | AMÉRICA AIRPORTS CORPORATION
Net revenue (2022): US$1.2 billion
Ebitda (adjusted): US$457 million
Passenger traffic: 65.6 million (in 53 terminals)
Number of employees: 6,114
Pmain competitors: Aena, Fraport, Vinci and Zurich