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Mr. Eurnekianis no stranger to bold bets. A decade ago, he correctly foresaw that acombination of democratic government and free-market reforms would spur a mediaboom in Argentina. More recently, he has been at the forefront of investors,including George Soros of the U.S. and Italy's Benetton family, who believeArgentina will once again be one of the world's great agricultural powers. Hehas purchased a giant tract in the north of the country and is planting half ofit with cotton for export.
"Eduardois a visionary who also has a real knack for business," says Eric Pfeffer,president of Cendant Corp.'s hotel division in Parsippany, N.J. "He's a real find for us."
While Mr.Eurnekian's foreign partners have nothing but praise for the way he doesbusiness, his image in Argentina is more controversial. The son of Armenianimmigrants, he started out in the family textile business, which by the early1980s had fallen on hard times because of the disastrous state of the Argentineeconomy. Like many other companies in the textile industry, Mr. Eurnekian kepthis companies afloat by borrowing tens of millions of dollars from a governmentdevelopment bank that was never repaid, people in the industry say.
Because ofrunaway inflation, the companies all contended that the loans were worthless,despite the government bank's insistence that they be indexed to inflation.During the 1980s, Mr. Eurnekian's brother and business partner held a senioreconomic post in the government of then President Raul Alfonsin.
Mr. Eurnekiandenies ever borrowing money from the now-liquidated Banco Nacional deDesarrollo. The official in charge ofthe liquidation process at the economy ministry here says he can't confirmwhether Mr. Eurnekian's companies borrowed money from the bank. "I don'twant to cause myself any headaches," he says.
