Javier Milei continues to generate
curiosity
in the main financial centers.
This was reflected by the
caravan of funds and banks
that visited the Casa Rosada in recent weeks to evaluate the direction of the shock plan and possible investments.
Conversations that, added to the visits of the Monetary Fund and the US Treasury, probably renewed the search for fresh funds.
The President acknowledged days ago that he is evaluating a new program with the IMF to accelerate the exit from the stocks and a change in the monetary regime. “We could move forward in making a new agreement with the IMF,” Milei told radio La Red a few days ago, and He added that “it could contemplate disbursements from the Fund, from other countries or from investment funds to accelerate the currency competition system.”
The Minister of the Interior, Guillermo Francos,
received between 20 and 30 funds in recent days
.
As Clarín
learned
, last week
Jefferies Group LLC
landed , a US investment bank that last November valued seven Exxon areas for sale in Vaca Muerta at one billion dollars, according to the Río Negro newspaper.
There were also meetings with the
CAF,
investors from the United States arrived on a trip organized by the Santander bank, and a delegation from the
Nomura
bank passed by , one of those interested in managing a loan with exports as collateral.
The Japanese entity,
Santander, HSBC and Citibank
placed the 100-year bond for US$2.75 billion in 2017, under the management of Caputo in Finance.
The visits coincide with the improvement of the financial dashboard (the purchase of US$ 10,000 million of reserves, the fall of the exchange gap and the country risk, the financial surplus, the recent exchange of debt in pesos and the increase in deposits in dollars ), but also with a strong recession, along with difficulties in lowering prices and advancing reforms with the support of Congress.
“I prefer to play it safe, as they say in the IMF, and target it in the middle of the year.
If they give me 15,000 million dollars, I will open it tomorrow,” Milei said a week ago.
But on Wall Street they are not so sure.
"Let's see if Elon Musk contributes when he goes to visit him!" said a New York operator, who looks in the mirror at Egypt, the IMF's second largest debtor after Argentina.
The Arab country agreed weeks ago with the organization to inject an extra US$8 billion on top of the US$3 billion loan signed in 2022. It will also receive development aid from the Arab Emirates for US$35 billion and the European Union yesterday committed another US $8,000 million.
"It was no coincidence that they devalued and funds came in, it certainly won't be free," said the same fund.
The Minister of Economy, Luis Caputo, agreed with the Fund to present a roadmap at the end of the month to lift the stocks and
abandon the "blend" or export dollar in June,
but he resists devaluation and needs more reserves.
"Tied with wire, all the adjustment made in the short term, removing the stocks would eliminate the PAIS tax, right?" they ask in another New York fund.
Last Tuesday, Francos received the financial director of the investment bank
Morgan Stanley, Steven Vanne,
along with representatives of five other funds,
such as Nicolás Rodríguez Brizuela Artisan Partners, United States), Davide Amico (Canyon, United Kingdom), Robert Gibbins (Autonomy Capital Research LLP, United Kingdom) and Branko Maric (Discovery Capital Management LLC).
At that meeting, the visitors presented "possible future investments."
The potential, something that is repeated, reveals the challenges that Caputo faces to convince them that he has a plan to abandon the stocks without provoking a run, and political support to guarantee the "sustainability" of the adjustment, after the setback suffered by the DNU on last Thursday in the Senate.
That task is probably more difficult with investors who bought the 100-year bond that the current minister placed for them and were trapped.
That is the case of Fideliy, a fund that visited offices in Buenos Aires last week
.
The tour included EMSO and GLG MAN in the fund, where Guillermo Ossés from Córdoba, with previous stints at HSBC and PIMCO, monitors the Argentine debt.
At this time, all eyes are on the May 25 pact with the governors.
Without this agreement to approve the Bases law and the new fiscal package, it will be more difficult - they believe on Wall Street - to generate trust.
"Caputo knows the markets very well, he is not going to say that he obtained funds without first agreeing to it," said Javier Timerman, partner at AdCap.