Santiago Soldati

Santiago Soldati (born February 11, 1943) is a prominent Argentine businessman.

Santiago Soldati was born to Francisco Soldati, a nephew of the founder of the Villa Lugano neighborhood of Buenos Aires, José Francisco Soldati, and the owner of the city's largest utility, the Italian-Argentine Electric Company. His father bought controlling interest in Sociedad Comercial del Plata (SCP), a holding company with varied interests, primarily real estate, in 1965, and expanded the company into petroleum transport. Raised in a family of Swiss descent (José Francisco had been born in Lugano), Soldati was educated in Switzerland.

The family's growing prominence made them a target to left-wing extremism during the 1970s, however, and in April 1973, Santiago Soldati was kidnapped by the Montoneros, who released him after payment of a US$1.5 million ransom. His father ultimately lost his life in a November 1979 bombing carried out by the same group, in one of their last attacks. He became President of SCP when his elder brother, Francisco, died in a polo accident in 1991.

Soldati took control of SCP at a time when Argentine President Carlos Menem and Economy Minister Domingo Cavallo were advancing an ambitious privatizations policy. SCP became a minority shareholder in newly privatized television, telephone, natural gas, electricity, freight rail services, as well as the metro Buenos Aires water utility. These became Telefé, Telefónica de Argentina, Transportadora del Gas del Norte, Transener, Ferroexpreso Pampeano and Aguas Argentinas, respectively, during the early 1990s. Soldati invested part of his diversified earnings into two tourist attractions: the Tren de la Costa railway, and the Parque de la Costa amusement park. The first he developed by securing a concession in 1993 to operate the formerly state-owned Ferrocarril Central Argentino route between the northern Buenos Aires suburbs of Olivos and Tigre, in disuse since 1961. Following the recovery of derelict rails and stations, and the purchase of new equipment, the 16 km (10 mi) "Coastal Train" was inaugurated in April 1995, helping revive the largely upscale area's real estate market.

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