In the 1990s, along with Eduardo Elsztein, Mr Mindlin set up investment fund IRSA – widely touted as George Soros’s partner in Argentina – which owned, among other things, most of Buenos Aires’ shopping malls. Since 2003, Mr Mindlin has been on his own, buying up portfolios of assets, particularly on the electricity distribution and transmission side, as foreign investors who were exasperated by rate freezes, price controls and the government’s nationalistic rhetoric have left the country.
Viewed by many as the kind of ‘patriotic investor’ that the Kirchner government is trying to promote, Mr Mindlin nonetheless eschews populist, anti-foreign sentiments. “I don’t share the view that local businessmen are better than foreigners. This country needs investment, both foreign and local,” he says.
In time, Mr Mindlin argues, the government will loosen its price controls and the assets he bought on the cheap will become worth a lot of money. Investors seem to agree with him: the shell company he bought last November for $1m on the Buenos Aires stock exchange, Pampa Holding, to house his assets, already has a market capitalisation of $185m. Buoyed by Argentina’s spectacular economic growth rates these days, Mr Mindlin’s gamble could well pay off.
