David Martínez Guzmán

David Manuel Martínez Guzmán (born 1957) is a Mexican investor who is the founder and managing partner of Fintech Advisory. This firm specializes in corporate and sovereign debt. Fintech Advisory has offices in London and New York City, and he currently divides his time between those two cities.

Described as "the most influential Mexican on Wall Street," Martínez played a major role in the restructuring of Argentina's sovereign debt and described himself in 2013 as having participated in nearly every restructuring of sovereign debt during the previous 25 years. His investments have been characterized as extending "from New York to Patagonia."

Early life and education David Martínez was born to Manuel Martínez and Julia Guzmán in Monterrey, Mexico. His family lived an average life until his father inherited a small fortune. Later, Martínez moved to Rome and enrolled in Legion of Christ Seminary to become a priest. After six months, he decided he was not suited for that vocation.

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." Although Martínez "was not a part of that circle, he had cultivated deep connections to it," helping the Sadas in 2004, for example, when one of their firms went bankrupt, and, later, becoming involved in the bankruptcy of the Sada-owned firm Vitro. According to one source, Martínez's "paternal great-great-grandmother was the sister of the paternal grandfather of Adrian Sada." , he "moved to Rome to study philosophy at the Pontifical Gregorian University and considered becoming a priest." He soon decided, however, that he did not have a clerical vocation, and instead obtained a loan from a friend's father in order to study at Harvard Business School. There he excelled as a student, made important connections, and earned an MBA.

Career After receiving his MBA, Martínez worked for Citigroup, taking a position on the emerging markets desk in New York. At Citigroup, he began to work "with distressed debt in far-flung places." In 1985, he left Citigroup.

Restructuring of Argentina's debt Martínez has been heavily involved in the Argentinian economy for many years. In 1994, he "invested in the wrecked Argentinean economy by buying government bonds with a maturity of 37 years for $834 million."

"Fintech was one of the major participants in the exchange of 2005," wrote William Dahill, a lawyer for Martínez. "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." Between 2004 and 2006, according to Daniel Marx, a former Finance Secretary of Argentina, Martínez paid $100 million on the secondary market for Argentine bonds with a nominal value of $700 million.

Ties to Kirchner family Martínez has been described as being "closely linked" to the late Argentinian president Néstor Kirchner

It is known that Guillermo Nielsen, then Secretary of Finance under Nestor Kirchner, met Martínez in Dubai in September 2003 to discuss the restructuring of Argentina's debt, and that the two men met six to 10 more times in New York, London, and elsewhere to continue the conversation. Over time, the "relationship between Martínez and the Kirchner government became stronger." In 2006, Martínez met Kirchner himself at the Argentine Consulate in New York. Five days later, "Martínez purchased 40 % shares of Cablevisión, the cable television system of Grupo Clarin, the largest media company in Argentina. Martínez can be seen sitting in the front row of the audience in a video of the 2007 inauguration of Cristina Fernández de Kirchner.

On March 11, the Financial Times ran a reply by Robert Shapiro of American Task Force Argentina, calling Martínez's article "a disservice to the FT's readers" and saying that Argentina's actions "pose the real threat to global finance." Shapiro explained that since Argentina's 2001 debt default, "the regimes of Néstor Kirchner and Christina Kirchner Fernandez have rejected every tenet of global finance. They refused to negotiate with bondholders, took four years to issue a 'take-it-or-leave-it' offer of 27 cents on the dollar or barely half the international norm, repudiated the debt of 25 per cent of bondholders who rejected that low-ball offer, and ignored more than 100 directives from US courts to honour their obligations." Rejecting Martínez's claim that Griesa had ordered "those who accepted the last restructuring...to 'share' what is owed to them," Shapiro stated that Griesa had "simply upheld Argentina's own original contract...and noted that under US law the Argentine government cannot choose to pay some creditors and not others." 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."

Telecom Argentina Bloomberg News reported on November 14, 2013, that Fintech Group had agreed to pay $860 million for Telecom Italia SpA's 68 percent holding in Sofora Telecomunicaciones, the controlling holding company of Telecom Argentina through Nortel Inversora, plus a direct minority stake, plus $100 million for related assets, for a total of $960 million. 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."

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." Noting that "Fintech has investments in Argentina's sovereign debt as well as in many restructured companies including a stake in the country's largest cable company, Cablevisión SA," Bloomberg quoted Martínez as saying, "We see tremendous opportunities for growth in the Argentine market and are committed to an important investment program to take advantage of those opportunities."

A joint exit In March 2014 Martínez called together several representatives of funds with holdings in Argentine bonds, with the intention of beginning to negotiate a joint exit for the bondholders. José Luis Manzano, a media entrepreneur and former member of the Menem government, was also involved in the negotiations, and both he and Martínez "assured their partners that they had the approval of the Government" to negotiate a deal. Reportedly, Martínez had asked JP Morgan to come up with an attractive offer for the bonds.

Venezuela In March 2017, his hedge fund, FinTech Advisory, considered a vulture fund, received bonds with a face value of $1.3 billion as collateral for a $300 million loan to Venezuela, helping the Venezuelan government sell assets amid international sanctions. Between April and June, Martinez traveled frequently to Venezuela on debt-related matters, traveling again in October to urge the government of Nicolas Maduro not to pay the accumulating payments on overdue bonds. Maduro decreed a debt restructuring days later. According to Bloomberg, this led the U.S. Treasury Department to investigate Martínez and consider sanctions for him as well.

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. However, Martínez has denied his links to them. In 2006 he reportedly set a record for the highest price paid for a piece of art with the purchase of a Jackson Pollock painting from David Geffen. Pollock's painting "No. 5, 1948" sold for US$140 million (£73m), on 1 November 2006. However, the auction expert Josh Baer stated that Martinez was not the buyer of the painting. Martinez does not own the painting or any rights to acquire it. In October 2012, however, The New York Times reported that despite these and other denials, "several people with knowledge of" Martínez's collection have said that the Pollock work hangs in his New York apartment. 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.

Personal life It described Martínez's residence in the Time Warner Center (80 Columbus Circle) as "one of the most expensive apartments in Manhattan," purchased in 2003 for "about $42 million." His New York apartment "over 15,000SF combo apartment that spans on the 76th & 77th floors. Has a two-story living room and a reflecting pool," and a "special system has been rigged to support one exceptionally heavy piece of art."

The Mexican media refer to Martínez as a "ghost investor." One source calls him "a discreet man" who despite his massive investments remains widely "unknown." Reportedly, only one photograph of him can be found on the Internet, which was taken by Kirchner's photographer, Bugge Victor, the official photographer for Argentina presidency, at Argentina's consulate in New York. "There is barely any news about his moves, or pictures of him on the Internet," reported IB Times. "There is no estimate of his wealth, although many have said that he is following in the footsteps of fellow Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim to become the richest man in the world."

According to The New York Times, "Martínez is, even to his associates, something of a mystery," a man about whom "Little is known in life as in business, Mr. Martínez treads lightly. He is fond of shell companies, whether to buy artwork or to pay household expenses. Those he hires often know him only as 'the client.'". Noting that "it is unclear" how much money Fintech controls, "or even how many employees work there," the Times has reported that when Elliott Associates and other funds sought to sue Fintech, they "encountered one obstacle early on: they couldn't find Mr. Martínez," either at Fintech's Park Avenue offices or at his Time Warner Center apartment.

Martínez reportedly "travels to Monterrey every Christmas to be with his mother, Juliana Guzman Sepulveda, and his sister, Beatriz Martínez Guzmán." In 1997 he "bought a plot of 874 square meters in the municipality of San Pedro Garza Garcia," on which his mother now lives.