04/22/2021 6:00 AM
Clarín.com
Economy
Updated 04/22/2021 8:19 AM
One of the large international funds that had been "trapped" in Argentine bonds
issued in pesos, took advantage of the "exchange summer" months to sell its securities and thus get out of local risk
. This is the Templeton fund, which according to a private report,
sold local bonds and with the pesos obtained bought more than US $ 600 million in the market called "cash with settlement", that is, the one that allows to credit dollars in accounts abroad
.
Templeton
sold 25% of its net position in Argentine assets
in pesos during the first three months of the year, according to the consulting firm
1816
. And with the pesos obtained by that operation, he turned to the financial dollar market to
demand about US $ 10 million per wheel, of the 59 that were counted in the first quarter of the year,
thus, he was also able to take advantage of the
strong interventions of the Bank Central
to maintain cash with settlement below $ 150 and managed to disarm part of its Argentine portfolio with a cheap dollar.
In total, the consultancy calculates based on an analysis of the holdings of this fund in the United States and Europe, Templeton
disposed of a good part of the Boncer and Botes it had,
which in turn explains the fall in these public securities in recent months.
While Templeton claimed dollars in cash, the Central
Bank
made use of the foreign currency it acquired in the exchange market as a result of a
greater liquidation of agriculture
and even the sale of banknotes by taxpayers who had to deal with it. payment of
the Wealth Tax to
intervene in the bond market and prevent the gap from skyrocketing.
The economists Adrián Rozanski and Martín Defilippo estimated that in the same period the monetary authority sold in the cash market with liquidation some
US $ 661 million.
Along with Pimco, Templeton is the
largest bondholder in the country
.
In 2018 it landed in Argentina and in association with the SBS Group launched three funds;
one for Argentine debt in local currency, another for debt in dollars and another for Latin American debt.
In addition, it was one of the large funds that negotiated sovereign debt last year.
Both firms
owned 88% of the public debt
in pesos in the hands of foreign investors.
And despite first-quarter sales, Templeton still
had $ 1,894 million invested in local peso bonds at the
end of last month
, which could create future pressures in the liquidation spot market if it continues to use this exit strategy.
More specifically, it owns more than half of the total of
T023 and T026
and almost 40% of the T021 Treasury bonds, which mature next October.
In 2020, to lessen the pressure of foreigners on the Cash with Liqui, the Ministry of Economy held two bids for bonds in dollars, for a total of 1.5 billion dollars.
Funds such as Templeton and Pimco bought those bonds and paid for them with peso bonds, as the bidding was designed.
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