Eduardo Eurnekian (born 4 December 1932) is an Argentine

billionaire A billionaire is a person with a net worth of at least 1,000,000,000, one billion (1,000,000,000, i.e., a thousand million) units of a given currency, usually of a major currency such as the United States dollar, euro, or pound sterling. The ...

businessman of Armenian descent. , he is the fifth richest person in Argentina, with an estimated net worth of US$1.4 billion.

Early life

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 Puma or PUMA may refer to: Animals * ''Puma'' (genus), a genus in the family Felidae ** Puma (species) or cougar, a large cat Businesses and organisations * Puma (brand), a multinational shoe and sportswear company * Puma Energy, a mid- and d ...

; but which, like many Argentine textile makers, nearly collapsed after Economy Minister

José Alfredo Martínez de Hoz José Alfredo Martínez de Hoz (13 August 1925 – 16 March 2013) was an Argentine lawyer, businessman and economist. He was Minister of Economy under Jorge Rafael Videla's administration between 1976 and 1981, and shaped economic policy at ...

's round of

free trade Free trade is a trade policy that does not restrict imports or exports. It can also be understood as the free market idea applied to international trade. In government, free trade is predominantly advocated by political parties that hold ...

and deregulatory policies exposed the real value of the business, in 1981.

Career

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 Cable television is a system of delivering television programming to consumers via radio frequency (RF) signals transmitted through coaxial cables, or in more recent systems, light pulses through fibre-optic cables. This contrasts with bro ...

station. His investment became increasingly lucrative following Economy Minister

Domingo Cavallo Domingo Felipe Cavallo (born July 21, 1946) is an Argentine economist and politician. Between 1991 and 1996 he was Economic Ministry of Argentina during Carlos Menem presidency. He is known for implementing the '' Convertibility plan'', which e ...

's implementation of the Convertibility Plan in 1991, which brought financial and price stability to Argentina during the 1990s. In 1994 he 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.

Investments in Armenia

On 17 December 2001, Eurnekian's Corporación América signed a 30-year concession agreement with the Armenian government for the management of operations of Zvartnots International Airport, which is Armenia's largest airport. The company launched the construction of a new terminal which brought the airport into conformity with international standards. The total cost of the project was more than $50 million. Eurnekian unveiled plans to invest millions of dollars into Armenia's agribusiness sector as he set up a

joint venture A joint venture (JV) is a business entity created by two or more parties, generally characterized by shared ownership, shared returns and risks, and shared governance. Companies typically pursue joint ventures for one of four reasons: to acce ...

with a local firm. Senior executives from ''Tierras de Armenia'', a

Yerevan Yerevan ( , , hy, Երևան , sometimes spelled Erevan) is the capital and largest city of Armenia and one of the world's oldest continuously inhabited cities. Situated along the Hrazdan River, Yerevan is the administrative, cultural, and ...

-based company belonging to Eurnekian, and the Max Group (owned by Harutiun Pambukian, a parliamentarian close to former President Robert Kocharian), reported a US$25 million joint venture to develop 60 km² (24 mi²) of arid land in the southern Armavir region into fruit orchards and a fruit processing plant. Eurnekian has built an almost $1 billion media empire since the early 1990s and is now the majority owner of a consortium operating 76 airports worldwide, mostly across Argentina and elsewhere in South America as well as in Armenia. He also owns 2,000 square kilometres of land and food processing factories in northern Argentina.

Awards

He has been awarded as the "Business Man of the year" in 1995. In 1999 he received in Italy the "Leonardo Award", given to the foreign businessman of the year. He also received the highest awards in Armenia for his activities. In 2012 he was awarded the Oslo Business for Peace Award in Oslo, Norway. In December 2020, he was appointed as Honorary Officer of the

Order of the British Empire The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding contributions to the arts and sciences, work with charitable and welfare organisations, and public service outside the civil service. It was established o ...

(OBE), for services to UK/Argentina relations.

Personal life

Eurnekian is single, and his "chosen successor" is his nephew Martin Eurnekian.

References