After suffering heavy losses, the Templeton investment fund would be finishing dismantling its positions in Argentina. This was reported by the Bloomberg agency from its local correspondent.
Bloomberg reported that the company it sold more than 25 billion pesos (US$156 million) in local bonds in the third quarteraccording to the records.
Since then, it has continued to liquidate Argentine bonds. Like this Ends six years of losses estimated at billions of dollarsand marks the departure of one of Argentina’s most important lenders in the past half-decade.
In total, the participation of Franklin Templeton, come to exceed the 5 billion dollars, it shrank to about $250 million, not including sales made in October or November, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
“The bet was horrible and, on the one hand, Franklin Templeton can be blamed for making it because similar bets in Argentina always ended badly,” Diego Ferro, founder of M2M Capital in New York, told Bloomberg.
“At the same time, the people in government were saying all the right things, they were credible at the time and they made a lot of promises,” adding that “obviously, everything looks better in hindsight.”
risky bets
Templeton CEO Michael Hasenstab rose to fame more than a decade ago after placing wildly successful bets in troubled countries like Ireland and Hungary that generated billions in returns for investors.. But that same strategy proved disastrous in Argentina.
Templeton invested heavily in Argentine bonds when Mauricio Macri’s presidency began, betting that the stock would rebound after Cristina Kirchner left power.
As part of this commitment, Hasenstab agreed in mid-2016 to purchase approximately $5 billion in fixed-rate peso bonds, convinced that inflation would quickly halve.
When Franklin Templeton bought the bonds in late 2016, he paid near face value. In recent months, as he continued to sell what was left of his investment, some traded below 30 centsaccording to data from Bloomberg, while the peso has weakened by more than 90% in that period.
Hasenstab has reduced its location in Argentina since 2020, according to records. A few months ago, in the midst of the rush after Martín Guzmán’s departure from the Ministry of Economy, he parted ways with the bonds to buy dollars on the financial market, in an operation that It was crucial for cash with liquids to rise to over $300.
Hasenstab did not respond to several requests for comment, while Stacey Coleman, a spokeswoman for Franklin Templeton, based in San Mateo, Calif., declined to comment on the company’s investments in Argentina or its investment strategy in general.
AQ
Source: Clarin
