David Martínez Guzmán (born in Monterrey, Nuevo León, Mexico 1957) is a Mexican investor who is the founder and managing partner of Fintech Advisory.
The New York Times has noted that Martínez's hometown, Monterrey, "is home to some of Mexico's largest industrial companies", with power being "heavily concentrated among businessmen in the so-called Group of 10, a club that includes the Sada family."
"[2] "As a young man," according to The New York Times, Martínez "was a member of Regnum Christi, an evangelical group related to the Legionaries of Christ, an influential Roman Catholic order in Mexico that includes among its benefactors the billionaire Carlos Slim."
[2] One of Martínez's most notable negotiations involved restructuring the debt of the Mexican chemicals and textile conglomerate Celulosa y Derivados, Sociedad Anónima (CYDSA), a company that had denied him a job when he was younger.
"He realized that the only way" that Argentina could recover from its economic crisis "would be through a reduction of its liabilities, which would allow the economy to grow and the country regain a minimum level of creditworthiness."
Five days later, "Martínez purchased 40 % shares of Cablevisión , the cable television system of Grupo Clarin, the largest media company in Argentina.
[7] The New York Times reported on October 11, 2012, on Martínez's involvement in the bankruptcy of Vitro, a 103-year-old Mexican glassmaking firm run by the Sada family, an event that was surrounded by "Allegations of covert meetings, fraudulent debts and crooked courts" and that ended up with "the company in the hands of its shareholders, while costing bondholders as much as 60 percent of their investment.
Vitro "began taking big loans from its subsidiaries, in effect creating a fresh class of creditors outside of the hedge funds — a group under its control, with the rights to approve any bankruptcy plan.
With Martínez's help, Vitro "outvoted many other bondholders to approve a reorganization plan" that paid creditors about 40 to 60 percent of what they were owed and kept the Sada family in control.
Arturo Porzecanski, economist in residence at American University's School of International Service, told the Times that the case "highlighted apparent loopholes in the bankruptcy law of Mexico, through which Vitro ran an 18-wheel truck.
These funds are seeking to reap the benefits of Buenos Aires' improved payment capacity – a result of the losses accepted by the vast majority during the restructuring."
Martínez called it a "scandal" that Griesa was forcing this majority "to share the interest payments they accepted on their restructured bonds with the minority that litigated," an arrangement which would doubly punish "those who contributed in favour of those who did not."
Martínez concluded: "Not only is Mr Griesa's decision unfair – it will also lead to society paying a price in the form of more protracted debt restructurings with less certain outcomes.
Shapiro commented that "The real victims of the Kirchners' long campaign to ignore their nation's obligations are the Argentine people," and quoted the recent statement by the Argentinian daily La Nación that "The main impediment for ending the conflict with the holdouts is that the government is prioritising the media battle with the creditors over channelling its energy towards seeking a technical solution.
This deal pitted him "against the mobile-phone business of Carlos Slim in South America's second-biggest economy" and "expanded Martínez's bets beyond holdings such as cable assets and Argentina's sovereign debt as he seeks to benefit from increasing Web and video use on mobile devices.
"[12] Bloomberg reported that "Telecom Argentina and the local unit of fellow Mexican billionaire Slim's America Movil SAB (AMXL) each have about a third of the nation's wireless market."
"[12] A The Wall Street Journal article, published on November 10, 2013, described Martínez's decision to invest in Argentina "an unusual call," given that "Argentina has been a cautionary tale for many investors since its 2001 default on $100 billion in sovereign debt" and that its last two presidents, Néstor Kirchner and Cristina Kirchner, had "repeatedly gone mano a mano with big business," nationalizing an oil company and seeking to force the Clarin media group to break up its business.
The Journal described Martínez as "part of a small group of investors who are willing to overlook Argentina's status as a financial pariah and bet long term," in the expectation that "the next government to be more pragmatic and less hostile to business.
[15] In 2018, prior to Venezuela's currency reconversion that went into effect on August 20, Martinez contacted Latin American economists to advise Maduro's government, including former finance ministers under Ecuadorian President Rafael Correa, Patricio Rivera and Fausto Herrera.
[15] An investigation by Armando.info reported that Venezuelan officials offered him to deliver bonds in their possession in exchange for participation in state-owned electricity company Corpolec in December 2018.
[15] Specializing in modern and contemporary works, David Martínez has been reported as also owning pieces by Mark Rothko, Pablo Picasso and Damien Hirst.
[5] Martínez was identified as the seller of a Mark Rothko's Untitled (1961) at Sotheby's in a 2010 lawsuit against him by Dallas art collector Marguerite Hoffman, who claimed breach of contract.
She later said the deal's privacy agreement was broken when Studio Capital Inc., a Belize-registered company[20] she claimed is controlled by Martínez "for the purpose of maintaining the secrecy of his purchases and sales of art," entered the Rothko in Sotheby's May 2010 auction in New York and marketing materials revealed her prior ownership.