Information regarding the business sector.
Swiss agribusiness firm Glencore offered Argentina’s Vicentin $325 million for its minority stake in the biodiesel production firm Renova. This operation would be a way out of the complicated economic situation Vicentin is going through. Today, it has two plants for grain processing stopped while the bankruptcy proceedings are progressing after accumulating debts of more than $1.5 billion.
Pan American Silver announced that it is temporarily suspending its operations in Argentina, including the Manantial Espejo mine, in order to comply with a mandatory national quarantine in response to Covid-19. The company is also suspending supply deliveries and personnel transport at its San Vicente operations in Bolivia to comply with a mandatory national quarantine.
Sociedad Comercial del Plata (SCP) made a profit of 1.059 billion pesos ($16.8) in 2019, the company reported yesterday to the National Securities Commission (CNV) and the Buenos Aires Stock Exchange. SCP’s consolidated sales are 249% higher than those registered in the same period in 2018.
Despite the high volatility in Argentina and the region and the fall in consumption, Arcor reduced its losses by 90% in 2019, according to the economic balance sheet. The Argentine company, dedicated to the production of food for mass consumption, agribusiness and packaging, had a negative result of 144 million pesos ($2.3 mn), in 2018 the loss had accumulated 1.555 billion pesos ($24.9 mn).
ADRs dropped 8%: Banco Macro led the retreats with -8.1%. Then, BBVA assets (-7.6%); Galicia (-7.4%); and Ternium (-6.9%) followed.
S&P Merval fell 4.2% to 35,222.43 units, where YPF shares fell 5.5% following adverse accounting results and the collapse of oil. In the fixed-income segment, the first dollar-denominated bonds fell to 7%, and country risk exceeded 2,400 points, 3.4%, its highest level in the last six months. The Buenos Aires Stock Exchange opens with a 12.7% collapse.
Mirasol Resources Ltd announced the signing of a Letter of Intent with Golden Opportunity Resources Corp for its Virginia Silver project in the Santa Cruz Province of Argentina. The LOI is subject to customary conditions including exchange approval, definitive agreement drafting as well as to Golden Opportunity completing an equity financing of not less than US$ 1 million within 90 days.
A Rosario-based fintech company is preparing to take the leap and expand the business to Uruguay. Two years ago, Maximiliano Isa Pavia created TuCuota.online, a startup dedicated to automated credit processes in financial companies and banks, so that they can participate in online tenders in affiliated businesses.
Latin American e-commerce giant Mercado Libre will invest $420 million in Mexico in 2020, as part of its continuing battle with Amazon.com to gain a larger slice of the country’s lucrative online retailing market. The online retailer, which is based in Buenos Aires, Argentina, has invested more than $1 billion in expansion efforts in Mexico since 2017 to compete with other online retailers.
The state oil company YPF records a loss of AR$30 billion in 2019, one of its worst results in the last ten years.
The company YPF Luz agreed with HSBC Bank a financing contract for $30 million that guarantees the completion of the construction of a thermal plant in the Manantiales Behr field, in the province of Chubut, where it already operates a wind farm.
