Friday July 26, 12:07 pm Eastern Time Dow Jones Business News Citigroup Seeks Control Of Argentine Newspaper - Report
BUENOS AIRES -(Dow Jones)- Citigroup Inc. (NYSE: C - News) 's Argentina unit wants a 58% stake in and management control of SA La Nacion in exchange for the $100 million in overdue debt the banking company is owed by the newspaper publisher, the Buenos Aires Economico newspaper reported Friday. Citibank Argentina executives and officials at La Nacion were not immediately available to comment on the BAE report. In June, when similar reports circulated widely within Argentine financial circles, a La Nacion executive told Dow Jones Newswires that his company and Citigroup were in debt repayment talks but denied there was any discussion about Citibank Argentina taking an equity stake in the newspaper. At the time, the executive said La Nacion owed $120 million in dollar- denominated debt to Citigroup and the BankBoston unit of FleetFinancial Corp.( FBF). A proposed law designed to shield politically influential Argentine media companies from their foreign creditors, opposed by the International Monetary Fund, is stalled in the Congress. To relieve the burden of its considerable dollar-denominated debts, the Perez Companc family said Monday it planned to sell 60% of its main oil company, Perez Companc SA , to Petrobras of Brazil for $1.1 billion in cash and debt.
