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Strategies & Market Trends : Argentine stocks -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: EPS who wrote (111)	9/24/1998 2:06:00 PM
From: Tom	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 331

I'll chip-in too...from what I can remember. A rough sketch. In 1990 a property developer contacted George Soros out of the blue about investing in Argentine real estate. Soros bit on the offer and chipped-in US$10 million worth of start-up money. The land at the time was undervalued, significantly. The company, IRSA, now has about 40 locales, e.g. office towers, landmark bldgs in BA, shopping centers, residential subdivisions, a hotel, sports complex, and some space at a port location. The last I have (Q1, 1998) is that Soros owns 30% of IRSA. The gentleman who had initially contacted Soros introduced him to a farm and livestock outfit called Cresud. Soros, via Quantum Partners, bought-in for about one-third of the company. Assets have increased nearly 10x since Soros' initial commitment in 1994. Two years later the company expanded significantly when they purchased additional farmland and cattle from a Campbell Soup subsidiary. The farmlands were purchased for 1/3 to 1/2 of what prices were in Europe and the U.S. Mr. Soros and the Reichmann brothers of Toronto have commercial developments in Mexico City. Empresas ICA is also involved. Can't remember how, or to what extent. In Venezuela Soros, IRSA and Quantum have spread their investments among an enormous real estate company, a bank, textiles, and a stake in Electricidad. Soros also held about 1% of Telebras and some prime real estate in Sao Paulo. Not certain how much of Telebras he now has. There was also a bank in Columbia and a shopping center developer in Chile. In Guatemala the Soros Foundation is/was active in the education and justice systems, and societal affairs in general.