The winners of Milei’s first months

Javier Milei spoke in Tucumán about “sacrifices” and the crisis, to demand even more patience from the working majorities who are currently going through a difficult situation due to the increase in unemployment, the fall in wages and income, after the brutal adjustment policiesIronically, on Independence Day, the sepoy government applies the recipes of the International Monetary Fund to pay homage to financial capital. But Not everyone lost in his first half year of government.

A study of the IPYPP Prepared by Agustina Haimovich, Claudio Lozano, Javier Rameri and Ana Rameri, it exposes the brutal numbers of the income transfer from the working majorities to local and foreign concentrated groups.

“While the income of most of society falls by between 20% and 40%, the net earnings of the most concentrated capitals in the different markets, increase in more than 800% compared to the previous year with increases exceeding the 9,000% in laboratories, 5,000% in the grain export complex, more than 1,300% in the food sector, 945% in the banking sector and 790% in the hydrocarbon sector.“, they say.

“Not everyone lost out as a result of the chainsaw and blender activated from December 2023. The mega devaluation, the deregulation of prices and the regulatory mechanisms contained in DNU 70/2023 allowed the most important companies operating in oligopolistic markets to appropriate the income cut from the population.”

He May Pact endorsed by governorseven with a sector of Peronism, includes among its points the “non-negotiable fiscal balance” and “public spending around 25 points of GDP”. That is, more chainsaws and deterioration of living conditions, in a country where poverty already exceeds 55% of the population.

Who are the winners and how much did they win?

IPYPP’s research focuses on the operating results of the main companies listed on the Buenos Aires Stock Exchange, and therefore does not exhaust the set of beneficiaries of Milei’s policies. But it undoubtedly allows us to account for the enormous profitability of most of the concentrated sectors that operate mainly in the financial sector, extractive activities and privatized public service companies, but also in industrial sectors such as food, which benefited from the price increase.

Year-on-year growth in operating and net income of major listed companies. Q1 2024 vs Q1 2023

He operative result refers to the profit from the main activity of the economic group, whereas the Net result includes financial gainparticipation in companies, payment of income tax, among other concepts.

• Hydrocarbon sector: The leading companies are YPF, Pan American Energy (PAN, owned by the British BP, the Chinese CNOOC and the Bulgheroni), Raízen (owned by Shell and the Brazilian Cosan) and Tecpetrol (owned by Techint). Here the interannual net result in the first quarter of the year reached 790% in the total of the three companies analyzed in the study (YPF, PAE and Tecpetrol).

• Food sector: In this sector, the following companies stand out: Cervecería y Maltería Quilmes (of the Belgian group AB InBev), Molino Cañuelas (of Aldo Navilli), Arcor (of the Pagani family), the dairy companies Mastellone (with its brand La Serenísima and controlled by Arcor) and Molfino (of the Canadian Saputo) and Molinos Río de la Plata (of the Perez Companc family). According to IPYPP, taking as an example three companies (Molinos Río de la Plata, Mastellone and Arcor) the net result grew 1331% interannual.

• Banking sector: Banco Santander, Macro, BBVA, Supervielle, Comafi, ICBC and Galicia among some of the main private banks operating in the country. According to IPYPP, the net result was around 945% in the first quarter. The owners of the share capital of the banking entities selected in the study are: Santander: Banco Santander de España; Macro: Brito family 17.28%, Delfin Jorge Ezequiel Carballo 19.26%, Anses 28.8%; BBVA: Banco Bilbao Vizcaya Argentaria SA

• Metallurgical sector: Between Aluar aluminum (owned by the Madanes Quintanilla family, which is trying to lay off 97 workers by requesting a Crisis Prevention) and Ternium (from the Techint group), the net result reached almost 500% in the first quarter of 2024. In addition to Ternium, local steel production has among its main suppliers Tenaris, Acindar, Aceros Zapla, AcerBrag and Gerdau (Sipar).

• Energy sector: : While the government applies rate increases, privatized companies multiplied their profits. Between Central Puerto and CT Ensenada Barragán, they obtained an increase in their profits of 5203% in the first quarter, according to information from the National Securities Commission (CNV), analyzed in the study. The owners of the capital stock of the selected companies are, for Central Puerto: Guillermo Reca, the Miguens-Bemberg family and Eduardo Escasany; for CT Ensenada Barragán: Pampa Energía (Mindlin family) and YPF. Other companies with great weight in the electricity generation market are Enel, Aes and YPF Luz.

• Cereal oilseed sector: Here, the Dutch Viterra stands out –which is in the process of merging with the North American Bunge–, its compatriot Louis Dreyfus, the American Cargill, the Association of Argentine Cooperatives (ACA), Aceitera General Deheza (AGD, of Roberto Urquía) and Molinos Agro (of the Perez Companc family). The latter had profits of 4921% in the first quarter of the year, more than 16 times the inflation of the same period. The owners of the company’s share capital are the Perez Companc family with 75% of the shareholding

• Pharmaceutical sector: Amid a brutal increase in the price of medicines, profits in the case of Laboratorios Richmond (owned by Marcelo Rubén Figueiras, Gerardo Cartellone and Alberto Daniel Serventich) were 9851%. An obscenity. Other important firms also make up the sector, such as Gador (owned by the Álvarez Saavedra, Fabbri and Roemmers families), the German company Bayer, Bagó (owned by the family of the same name), the Swiss company Roche and Elea Phoenix (owned by Hugo Sigman, his wife Silvia Gold and Daniel Sielecki, uncle of Ian Sielecki, appointed by Milei as ambassador to France).

• Mining: Here, firms such as Minera Andina Sol (owned by the Canadian company Barrick Gold and the Chinese company Shandong Gold, owner of the Veladero and Pascua Lama deposits in San Juan), Minera del Altiplano (owned by Arcadium Lithium, with headquarters in Ireland, and owner of a lithium mine in Salar del Hombre Muerto, Catamarca), Mansfield Minera (owned by the Canadian company Fortune Silver Mines, with deposits in Salta) and Minera Don Nicolás (owned by its compatriot Cerrado Gold, with operations in Santa Cruz) stand out.