Papel Prensa

Papel Prensa, S.A.

Type	Public-private partnership
Traded as	: PREN1 MERVAL component
Industry	newsprint
Founded	1972
Headquarters	Bartolomé Mitre 739 Buenos Aires
Key people	Héctor Magnetto, President and Director Julio César Saguier, Vice President and Director Enrique Pigretti, CEO
Revenue	US$ 94 million (2009)
Net income	US$ 4 million (2009)
Total assets	US$ 111 million (2009)
Number of employees	300 (2009)
Website	Papel Prensa

Papel Prensa is the largest Argentine manufacturer of newsprint, furnishing 58% of the local market in the staple. The public–private partnership became the focus of one of a series of controversies between Clarín and Kirchnerism (the ruling Argentine political faction) in 2010.

Papel Prensa (literally "Press Paper," loosely "newsprint") originated in the establishment of the Paper and Cellulose Production Development Fund in 1969 by de facto President Juan Carlos Onganía. The plan envisaged the establishment of a public-private newsprint manufacturing facility that could substitute imports of the staple, which excluding Papelera Tucumán, accounted for practically the entire annual demand of over 340,000 metric tons; the nation's 179 news dailies had a combined circulation of nearly 4.3 million in 1970, the second-largest in Latin America, and the highest on a per capita basis.

The fund stipulated the enactment of a 10% excise tax on all imported newsprint for a ten-year period, during which the state would retain a share in the company. A bidding process was launched in 1971 for the plant's development, though none met capacity requirements, and its construction was assigned to the Ministry of Industry. The company itself was formally established on July 12, 1972, with a 27% ownership by the state, and the remainder by a consortium led by publisher César Civita and the company he directed, Editorial Abril.

Civita and Editorial Abril sold their shares in late 1973 to a consortium led by banker and developer David Graiver who, through partner Rafael Ianover, became the firm's largest private shareholder. Secretly, however, Graiver acted as the investment banker for the Montoneros guerrilla group. He reportedly laundered US$17 million in funds that the Montoneros had received from illicit activities, principally kidnapping. These investments included a variety of interests in both Argentina and overseas, and by 1976, Graiver owned a significant stake in Jacobo Timerman's La Opinión (one of the leading newspapers and the leading magazine publisher in Argentina), as well as numerous other businesses and banks in Argentina, New York City, and elsewhere. Graiver contracted US$67 million in debts, however, and reportedly died in a plane crash near Acapulco on August 7, 1976. He was indicted for embezzlement in 1978 by Manhattan district attorney Robert Morgenthau, who believed the elusive banker to possibly be alive.