In Vicentin they say that if they expropriate them they will fight in Justice

Nicolas Wiñazki

06/13/2020 - 20:48

• Clarín.com
• Economy
• Economy

The Vicentin case, the first possible expropriation of a large private company that would boost the management of Alberto Fernández, has just begun. The President repeats in statements to the media that this agro-exporter will be confiscated by the State. "It is the only way," he insists. Vicentin's shareholders think otherwise.

The Casa Rosada found in that directory, and in its shareholders, a united group that is ready to defend itself. At least that's what they did so far. And what they told the President himself during a meeting that last Thursday that brought them together in the Quinta de Olivos, with officials and lawyers on one side and the other.

As Clarín was able to reconstruct based on witnesses to that meeting, both from the private sphere and from the ruling party, the talk was cordial but with firm replies . Hard words in a soft tone. "We want to rescue Vicentin, it is strategic for Argentina. It is not that I like expropriation, but for now we believe that the only way to save it because it is bankrupt," said Fernández, more words, less words, after hearing a chronology. who described the direct ones to him about the ups and downs of his finances.

At that time, one of Vicentin's lawyers, who knows the President of the world of Law, and perhaps for that reason he was encouraged to tweet, stopped the dialogue with what seemed to be a friendly phrase: "Alberto, Vicentin is not bankrupt, it is in bankruptcy, you know that it is something very different ".

Fernández heard the managers of the agro-exporter tell them the list of purchase offers that they claimed to have from various private groups. But the President remained in his position: "Let us study everything that is proposed to us, but I understand that we are moving towards expropriation."

Vicentin's men then replicated their decision to fight in Justice if that would be the final plan of the State: "President, there are other possibilities before a nationalization. If it is decided to expropriate the company, we have the right to defend ourselves in Justice "

Fernández, as a good lawyer, admitted that they will indeed be able to resort to legal tools to claim what they believe is unfair. But it also hinted that the government could also explore other methods to persuade them to accept confiscation of the controversy.

The Vicentin company was founded 90 years ago, is based in the Santa Fe city of Avellaneda, and extended to multiple businesses, linked to agriculture, among other activities.

Last February, he entered bankruptcy because he accumulated a debt of 1,500 million dollars. The most important number is owed to Banco Nación.

The negotiation started badly , it continues in channels of confrontation, but at the same time it got back on track in unfinished dialogues, which did not exist before.

Last Tuesday, surprisingly, Fernández called a press conference. He would not talk about the pandemic or the negotiation with the bondholders: the subject was Vicentin.

"We want to rescue this company that is going through a financial crisis where the National State is its main creditor through the Banco de la Nación," he said, and elaborated: "I am announcing that we are sending Congress an expropriation law so that the The National Government will take over the assets of the Vicentin Group, which will become part of a trust fund that will be taken over by YPF Agro ".

The announcement of the "expropriation" of the Vicentin Group was rejected by several groups that bring together important actors in the national economy. One of the economic advisers the President listens to the most, Roberto Lavagna , was critical of the measure announced by the Casa Rosada. Former President Eduardo Duhalde had said he was sure that Fernández would not expropriate Vicentin. Now he is angry: "It is nonsense."

Fernández was upset when the press asked if the move was an idea of ​​Vice President Cristina Fernández.

He assured no. He said that the issue was being worked on together with his Minister of Production, Matías Kulfas, with the advice of the national senator of Mendoza Anabel Fernández Sagasti.

Protest in Avellaneda, Santa Fe, against Vicentin's expropriation. (Photo: Juan Jose Garcia)

However, Clarín was able to know, based on sources from both the Cabinet and "Christianity", that the first to raise the possibility of expropriating Vicentin was the former head of the AFIP, Ricardo Echegaray , together with Cristina Fernández. The information was released yesterday in this newspaper by the journalist Marcelo Bonelli.

The plan analyzed in the "Instituto Patria " seeks that the Government nationalize Vicentin because it exports products for 4 billion dollars a year of its production, a vital figure for a State that will face a crisis after the end of the pandemic. Added to this is that, if the company finally expropriates and remains under YPF's control, then Government K could try to have control over the price of the grain markets.

Today, after he announced the presidency and the intervention by decree of the company, from "Christianity" they are critics of Fernández. They compare the situation with a very controversial expropriation of the K era. That of ex-press Ciccone Calcográfica : "In 42 days we had voted the expropriation law in Congress and we had the auditors inside," he says, pragmatists.

The group of deputy Máximo Kirchner, La Cámpora, issued a statement on its website with the title: "Towards food sovereignty."

The presidential announcement caused surprise within the Cabinet itself. Some ministers consulted by this newspaper assure that, beyond the situation, Fernández will not finally expropriate Vicentin.

Santa Fe Governor Omar Perotti was surprised by Fernández's announcement. And he was the link between the President and the CEO of Vicentin, Sergio Nardelli.

The Government had encountered a company that would not accept its impositions. For example: last Wednesday, the state-appointed deputy auditor, Luciano Zurich, appeared at the main plant of the agro-exporter. The managers closed the entrances to the place and Fernández himself had to intervene, via Perotti, to be let through.

Before that, the National Notary General, Carlos Gaitán, tried to get the agro-exporter's referents to sign an act stating that they did not object to Zarich's intervention. In Vicentin they refused. Then an intermediate situation was reached: an act was signed where it was described that Zarich would be accepted as intervener in the firm, but another act was also signed where Vicentin made clear his objections in this regard.

In a talk with the President in Olivos, the Vicentin executives rejected the official complaints that the company took hundreds of millions of dollars in loans from Banco Nación in an irregular way during the administration of Mauricio Macri.

They asked Fernández that the controller analyze all the papers, and they assured that they had no problem defending themselves against these accusations before the Justice. Perotti hoped: "The President is willing to listen to alternatives that exceed expropriation."

The next day, the Vicentin executives met with the YPF president, Guillermo Nielsen, who , contrary to what the President had announced regarding the role that YPF Agro could play in this new business, minimized that chance: "We have to study it , maybe we can concede something with the few resources we have. " Perotti did not speak further. His production minister, Daniel Costamagna, did it: "There is nothing more to talk about, " he was angry.

At the meeting in Olivos, the company's executives assured Fernández that they had at least three advanced purchase offers . The first is from a foreign company that is already a partner in the Santa Fe firm, Glencore, which would seek to increase its share capital through its local subsidiary, Renova. The second is driven by a former CEO of another large international agro-exporter, Cargill. And the third purchase offer came through the Carval group , another agricultural investment fund. In this last negotiation, the ex-Minister of the Interior of Carlos Menem, now an entrepreneur, José Luis Manzano, works.  Cristinas Fernández does not have him among his friends. Obstacle.

The day after the meeting between Vicentin and the President, the Financial Information Unit (FIU), denounced the company for money laundering. Remarkable chronological and political coincidence.