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The Largest Family Businesses in Buenos Aires - Tharawat Magazine
December 01, 2023
Argentina is Latin America’s third largest economy, with a GDP of around $632 billion. A resource-rich nation, Argentina controls the world’s second-largest shale gas and fourth-largest shale oil reserves. The production of unconventional oil and gas has been one of the country’s fastest-growing sectors, up around 26% from 2022. Despite the rise in oil and gas production, agriculture remains Argentina’s leading supply category, accounting for approximately 55% of its total exports.
Buenos Aires is Argentina’s trade centre, manufacturing base, and financial hub. The country’s capital city accounts for about 15% of Argentina’s GDP, generating around $95 billion annually. Buenos Aires is home to South America’s second largest tech start-up sector, behind Brazil’s São Paulo. Despite a complicated business environment, growing inflation, and uncertainty around the value of the country’s peso, Argentina’s private sector plays a vital role in the country’s economic performance, accounting for 29% of the nation’s total employment.
Here are 10 of the Largest Family Businesses in Buenos Aires by revenue:
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10. Consultatio S.A.
Owning/Controlling Family: Costantini
Annual Revenue: $130 million
Eduardo Costantini established the real estate development and global investments firm Consultatio S.A. in 1991. With activities in Argentina, Uruguay, and the United States, the company operates through three segments: urbanisation, residential buildings, and corporate towers. Consultatio’s Alem Plaza project, in the centre of Buenos Aires, was one of the first state-of-the-art towers developed in Argentina’s Catalinas area.
Eduardo leads the firm with his brother, Cristian Costantini, who serves as its president. Since its founding, Consultatio has developed 143,000 square metres of residential housing and 92,000 square metres of corporate office space.
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9. Inversiones y Representaciones Sociedad Anónima (IRSA)
Owning/Controlling Family: ElsztainAnnual Revenue: $270 million
IRSA is Argentina’s largest real estate investment company with a portfolio of properties ranging from shopping malls, offices, and hotels to convention centres, land reserves, and residential spaces. Founded in 1943, Eduardo Elsztain bought the firm in 1991 and expanded the company’s office tower, shopping centre, and mixed-use development activities. The firm’s Alto Palermo shopping mall, located in Buenos Aires, generates the highest sales per square metre of any retail space in the country. IRSA also owns nearly 30% of Banco Hipotecario S.A., one of Argentina’s leading financial institutions.
Eduardo Elsztain serves as the company’s chair, a post he’s held since 1991. Brother Alejandro Elsztain serves as IRSA’s second vice-chair, and their other four brothers hold director positions while also leading different business segments.
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8. Grupo Clarin
Owning/Controlling Family: Noble Herrera, Magnetto, Pagliaro, ArandaAnnual Revenue: $320 million
Argentina’s largest media group, Grupo Clarin, has businesses that include the newspaper Clarin, which holds a 30% national market share, the popular free-to-air television station El Trece, and the cable network Artear. Roberto Noble started Clarin in 1945. Soon after, the newspaper became the most-read periodical in Buenos Aires. Ernestina Herrera de Noble took over the paper after the death of her husband in 1969 and began vertically integrating the company’s activities. The group entered radio and cable television during the 1990s and launched new products in the publishing sector during the early 2000s. In 2016, Grupo Clarin subsidiary, Cablevision acquired the cellular operator Nextel Argentina and later acquired the telephone company Telecom Argentina in 2017, creating one of Buenos Aires’s leading telecommunications firms.
Four Argentinian families are Grupo Clarin’s principal shareholders and actively participate in the firm’s operations, including Marcela and Felipe Noble Herrera, the daughter and son of Ernestina Herrera de Noble.
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7. Grupo Supervielle
Owning/Controlling Family: SupervielleAnnual Revenue: $420 million
Founded by the Supervielle family in 1887, the financial services company has become Argentina’s 11th largest private bank. Serving over 1.7 million customers through its 153 branches and digital platforms, the group’s business units include insurance, investments, and asset management. Grupo Supervielle controls over $2 billion in assets and trades on the Buenos Aires and New York Stock Exchanges. Julio Patricio Supervielle, great-grandson of the bank’s founder, has led the group as its chair and CEO since the early 2000s.
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6. Aluar
Owning/Controlling Family: MadanesAnnual Revenue: $1 billion
Aluar is Argentina’s main aluminium smelter and one of South America’s largest, with a processing capacity of 460,000 tonnes a year. Argentina’s aluminium needs represent around 30% of Aluar’s production output, with the company exporting its remaining volume to countries that include the United States, Brazil, Japan, and Germany. As part of the firm’s environmental sustainability strategy, Aluar partnered with Danish alternative energy company, Vestas in 2022 to provide wind-generated power to Aluar’s smelting plant in east-central Argentina.
The Madanes family and their company partners were awarded the contract to produce aluminium for the state in the late 1960s. Led by both Santiago Madanes Quintanilla’s father and mother, he eventually secured controlling ownership of the company from his cousins and serves as Aluar’s chair.
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5. Banco Macro S.A.
Owning/Controlling Family: BritoAnnual Revenue: $1.6 billion
Originally a brokerage firm, Banco Macro entered the banking sector in 1989 and has grown to become a national private bank and Argentina’s largest branch network with 463 locations. In 1985, Jorge Brito began steering his business toward banking activities after acquiring competing brokerage house Financiera Macro.
After a tragic helicopter accident in 2020, Jorge Brito’s six children inherited a controlling stake in the firm along with members of their mother’s Carballo family. Brito’s eldest son, Jorge Pablo Brito, manages the family trust and has served as Macro’s chair since 2022. Members of the Brito and Carballo families maintain director positions in the firm.
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4. Grupo Financiero Galicia
Owning/Controlling Family: EscasanyAnnual Revenue: $2.5 billion
One of Argentina’s leading financial services holding companies, Grupo Financiero Galicia, operates through its segments in savings, credit, investment, insurance, and digital solutions. The company’s subsidiaries include Banco Galicia, FinTech firm Naranja X, insurance provider Galicia Seguros, Galicia Securities, and portfolio management group Fondos Fima.
Banco Galicia was founded in 1905 and became one of the first Argentine companies to list on the Buenos Aires Stock Exchange in 1907. The financial institution was the first Latin American bank to trade in the U.S. stock market. Grupo Financiero Galicia was created in 1999 to manage the Group’s activities. Today, Banco Galicia serves over 3,000,000 customers and maintains around 11% of the country’s market share in private-sector loans. Eduardo Escasany chairs the company his grandfather co-founded.
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3. Grupo Perez Companc
Owning/Controlling Family: Perez CompancAnnual Revenue: $3.4 billion
In 1946, the Perez Companc family established the oil and gas conglomerate Petrolera Pérez Companc, growing the firm into a core business for the group over the following decades. After taking over from his father, Gregorio Perez Companc led the diversification of Grupo Perez Companc’s holdings, which today include energy, food & beverages, and agribusiness. The group is a leader in Argentina’s food industry with over 30 brands and the country’s top agri-exporter, Molinos Agro.
Grupo Perez Companc exited the oil and gas sector in 2002 after selling Petrolera Pérez Companc to Brazil’s state-owned energy company, Petrobras. In 2015, the group reestablished its oil and gas activities with the creation of PeCom, a company created by the merger of several newly gained Grupo Perez Companc businesses. Today, PeCom is Argentina’s largest services provider for the oil & gas, electricity, and telecommunications industries. Luis Perez Companc leads Grupo Perez Companc as its board chair after his father stepped away from the business in 2009.
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2. Arcos Dorados
Owning/Controlling Family: StatonAnnual Revenue: $4 billion
The world’s largest independent McDonald’s franchisee and the largest quick-service restaurant chain in Latin America and the Caribbean, Arcos Dorados has the exclusive rights to own, operate, and franchise McDonald’s locations in 20 countries and territories. Former McDonald’s executive, Woods Staton, acquired the rights to 1,560 McDonald’s locations in 2007 for his Arcos Dorados (Golden Arches) company. Today, the business operates over 2,300 restaurants, employing over 95,000, and has served around 95 million diners.
Woods Staton serves as Arcos Dorados’ executive chair after stepping away from his position as president and CEO in 2015. Woods’ son, Francisco Staton, sits on the company board and leads one of its regional divisions.
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1. Techint Group
Owning/Controlling Family: RoccaAnnual Revenue: $34 billion
The steel and construction conglomerate was founded by Agostino Rocca in 1945. Today, the group operates through its 6 companies. Tenaris and Ternium are leading manufacturers in the steel sector, and Techint E&C operates in the engineering and construction industry. The Group’s Tenova and Tecpetrol businesses operate in mining and oil & gas exploration and production. Humanitas is the Techint Group’s hospital network located in Italy.
Tenaris is the world’s premier manufacturer of pipes for the energy sector and operates in 25 countries. Techint E&C has completed more than 3,300 construction projects over its 75-year history, and the group’s Tecpetrol produces the equivalent of 193,000 barrels of oil daily. Grandsons of the founder, Paolo Rocca and Gianfelice Rocca, lead Techint Group as its CEO and chair, respectively.
