ARGENTINA: Doing Business with Per

President Juan Perón has had more nibbles than bites since he began fishing for U.S. private-investment capital 14 months ago. Last week he landed his first catch: U.S. Industrialist Henry Kaiser, who signed a contract to manufacture cars and trucks in Argentina. Said Kaiser: “In all my life, I have never met anybody as effectively dedicated to the promotion of an automobile deal as General Perón.”

Under the terms of the deal, Kaiser and the state-owned IAME (Aeronautical & Mechanical Industries Corp.) manufacturing trust will hold 51% of the stock in a new automobile plant to be built and operated by Kaiser. The rest of the stock will be sold to private investors in Argentina. Kaiser will put up some $10 million, mostly in automaking equipment, and IAME will put up $5,700,000. Planned yearly production (by 1957): 40,000 vehicles—passenger cars, station wagons, jeeps and light trucks. Argentina has been car-hungry since 1947, when restrictions to save dollar exchange cut imports of U.S. cars to a trickle. With customers eager and competition largely fenced out, Kaiser hopes to accomplish in Argentina what he has failed to do in the U.S.: make money out of automaking.

Another U.S. businessman interested in making a deal with Peron & Co. is Financier Floyd Odium (Atlas Corp.). After first seeking an oil concession in central Argentina, Odium offered an elaborate oil-uranium investment package. Perón himself seemed willing to do business, but nationalist politicos and army officers around him objected strenuously to letting a Yanqui get his hands on Argentine natural resources. Last week, having given the Argentines 30 days to make up their minds, Odium was back in the U.S. waiting for a yes or (more likely) a no.