On Monday, the New York-listed shares of YPF, a state-owned oil firm in Argentina, saw a massive surge of 40% following the victory of Javier Milei in the presidential runoff election. Milei, a right-wing libertarian candidate from the Liberty Advances coalition, won the election by defeating Economy Minister Sergio Massa.
In his campaign, Milei had pledged to reform the Argentine economy and expressed a desire to privatize YPF. Following his win, he stated in a radio interview that his administration will “create value” for companies to be sold beneficially for Argentines. As a result of this announcement, other Argentina-related equities such as Grupo Financiero Galicia, Banco Macro, and the Global X MSCI Argentina ETF also saw gains.
Milei’s economic plan involves prioritizing the use of the US dollar domestically and potential sales of YPF and other state-controlled companies to improve public accounts. He has also expressed his commitment to ending the “model of decadence” in post-election speech, suggesting change is imminent. Investors and markets will closely watch the exchange rate between the peso and the dollar as this move could have significant implications for Argentine economy.
