Hear
“If the coin falls on the right side of history, Argentina has a very nice opportunity,” he believes. Cristian Lopez, who recently joined as the new director and partner of Novus Asset Management, the managing company of the Personal Investment Portfolio Group (PPI). After years of restrictions and exchange restrictions, the analyst considers that the path of deregulation would boost investment opportunities for local companies.
At the moment, Novus AM It manages assets that exceed $120,000 million and has multiplied its managed assets almost threefold so far this year. However, the investment alternatives that the fund manager has are counted on their hands, in line with the conditions that the capital market allows today. Common investment funds so that savers can cover themselves from the devaluation (dollar linked), inflation (CER instruments), or for those who need immediate liquidity (money market).
“In the fund industry, Argentina has the chance to have more fun companies with greater added value. Until now, I would tell you that from the middle of Néstor Kirchner’s government until the beginning of Cristina or 2009 onwards, there was a market mowed down by regulation after regulation. Supply and demand were locked in a zoo, and there was a world filled with pesos. One tried to offer products that provide less than perfect coverage against inflation or devaluation of the official exchange rate, but they left the international universe dead. People got used to a flat, not very dynamic industry“, analyzed López, a public accountant who has 20 years of experience in the financial sector, in dialogue with LA NACION.
For the analyst, if the capital market normalizes, the Government announces the exit of the exchange rate and the National Securities Commission (CNV) eliminates the restrictions that exist when operating, many hedge funds “will cease to have a reason to exist.” Instead, the industry will begin to focus on the launch of new products that generate added value.
Until the elimination of the funded retirement system, in which the Retirement and Pension Fund Administrators (AFJP) operated, there were possibilities for these investment entities to position themselves in commodities, international stocks and emerging fixed income assets, for example. In this way, investors They could diversify their assets and not have 100% positions in Argentina.
For López, this path could be resumed if the restrictions are eliminated, a fact that in the medium-long term would encourage companies’ investment projects. As a first step, recently Novus launched the FCI HouseView, “the fund of the house”, which constantly invests in different fixed income alternatives, depending on the macroeconomic vision of the analysts. They are also under analysis to launch a dollar fund on the market, but the decision is pending what will happen with the exchange rate.
“I think we are all waiting for political signals, looking at the same coin. Of course there will be tensions, but at the end of the road I am very constructive. If you step back from the situation and look at the entire movie, if things are done right there is an energy industry that could generate a huge influx of dollars. And that lack of dollars that always affects us should be resolved. It seems that Argentine society understood that the fiscal deficit is a problem and led us to inflation for the last 100 years.; and that is why he is digesting with such importance the mega adjustment that occurred, as a key step in righting a ship that was going in the wrong direction,” she closed.
