ARGENTINA Law and Practice Contributed by: Agustin Ferrari and Astrid Nottebohm, Naveira, Truffat, Martínez, Ferrari & Mallo Abogados
NTMA Carlos Pellegrini 719 Floor 3 C1008 City of Buenos Aires Argentina Tel: +54 911 5064 4436 Email: aferrari@ntma.com.ar Web: ntma.com.ar
1. Trends 1.1 M&A Market
nomic conditions there could further drag multi - national companies away from Argentina. The M&A market no longer appears to be con - centrating on the exit strategies of foreign inves - tors and multinational companies, unlike a year ago, although last year’s inertia did extend fur - ther through 2024, explaining several of the most recent transactions. The market is now focused on investments in strategic sectors, driven by the deregulation brought about by President Javier Milei’s flagship reform bill, Ley Bases, and the RIGI regime (the “Incentive Regime for Large Investments” a much-celebrated, ambitious ini - tiative intended to attract substantial investment to projects in certain business sectors). 1.2 Key Trends The last 12 months in Argentina have seen a per - sistent focus on the oil & gas and energy sectors, which represented approximately 30% of deals and 60-70% of deal value. The RIGI regime, which offers a wide range of stability measures, legal protections and incen - tives aimed at encouraging large-scale invest - ments, laid the foundations for this hyperactivity. Several projects in the mining (namely lithium and copper), renewable energies and oil & gas upstream and midstream sectors (predomi -
M&A activity in Argentina picked up in 2024 compared to previous years, with the number of deals closed reaching levels seen back in 2017-2019. This higher activity was particularly significant during Q3 and Q4 of 2024. The main drivers of this trend, all of which helped create a very positive climate for investment, were as follows: • the successful reduction by the new adminis - tration of skyrocketing inflation inherited from the previous government; • the easing of foreign-exchange regulations; • adoption of pro-market measures; • reduction of country risk; and • improvement in other key economic indica - tors, with rumours of a possible upcoming broad tax reform. Reduced interest rates in the US certainly enhanced the already favourable local backdrop. However, regional markets may continue to neg - atively affect Argentina’s M&A sector. Investors will need to closely monitor the increased risk in neighbouring business partner, Brazil, since regional exits triggered by deteriorating eco -
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