Eduardo Eurnekian (Armenian: Էդուարդո Էռնեկյան, born 1932) is an Argentinian-Armenian businessman. As of March 2013, he is the second richest person in Argentina.
Life and times
Rise to prominence
Eduardo Eurnekian was born to Armenian immigrant parents on 4 December 1932. His family established a textile manufacturer which prospered with the Argentine economy and became an important supplier to international sporting apparel firm Puma; but which, like many Argentine textile makers, nearly collapsed after Economy Minister José Alfredo Martínez de Hoz’s round of free trade and deregulatory policies led to a severe crisis, in 1981.
The Eurnekian family reportedly borrowed heavily from the former Argentine small business lender, BANADE, and in 1988, Eduardo Eurnekian purchased “Cablevisión S.A,” then a failing local cable tv station. His investment became increasingly lucrative following Economy Minister Domingo Cavallo’s implementation of the Convertibility Plan in 1991, which brought financial and price stability to Argentina during the 1990s. Eurnekian in 1994 sold a 51% stake in Cablevision S.A. (by then Argentina’s second-largest cable operator), to Tele-Communications Inc. for US$350 million and in 1997, netted US$320 million by selling most of his remaining shares to local investment giant CEI Citicorp Holdings SA.
Eurnekian also held controlling interest in “América TV”, four radio stations and a Buenos Aires financial daily, El Cronista. “Aeropuertos Argentina 2000,” a consortium led by Eurnekian won a 30-year concession in 1998 to run 33 of the Argentina’s main airports. He also bought the Howard Johnson’s master franchise in Argentina from Cendant, and invested in a regional airline company, LAPA.
Source:wikipedia