Trafigura targets Argentinian potential

Trading heavyweight acquires stake in President Energy, undeterred by the country’s financial and political risks

The political revival of former Argentinian president Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, and the return to power of a Peronist left-leaning government in last October’s national election, struck fear into investors at the prospect of the country rolling back the business-friendly energy reforms of the previous Macri regime. Their dread was compounded by a looming IMF deadline on Argentina’s monumental debt.  But while the arrival of a new government, headed by incoming president Alberto Fernandez and supported by vice-president Kirchner, has yet to define its new energy strategy, commodity trading firm Trafigura has demonstrated confidence in the country’s trajectory—acquiring a stake in the Ne