Did the buyer of a 50 percent equity stake in a defaulted firm make a good investment?
Did the buyer of a 50 percent equity stake in a defaulted firm make a good investment?
The Ciber Case Series
In 2003, when Argentina was in the throes of a financial crisis that brought soaring inflation and unemployment, the Werthein Group paid $125 million for a 50 percent equity stake in Telecom Argentina, the country's major local telephone provider. The company had defaulted on $3.2 billion in debt - the largest corporate default in Argentina's history - after the peso's devaluation in 2002. Gerardo Werthein, the CEO of the Werthein group, was making a bet not just on the survival of the company, but on the country's financial system. This case provides an interview with Werthein and the data available to him at the time, and asks students to determine the value of his investment.