Edenor’s new partner, the businessman who made the most of the pandemic

Although it has a monopoly on the chlorine activity and its Transclor group bills about $ 12 billion per year, Mauricio Filiberti is one of those businessmen who cannot be seen in sectoral chambers. From time to time he took part in the Idea colloquium in Mar del Plata and felt a outsider. His relationship with politics is much more comfortable.

He comes from afar and transcends the rift, judging by those who remained in his spectacular yacht exclusively Saint Tropez. His name has now appeared due to the purchase of Edenor by José Luis Manzano and Daniel Vila. In this company, 51% of the largest electricity distribution company so far owned by Marcelo Mindlin, Manzano-Vila and Filiberti van in three equal parts.

Close to Filiberti, who in the business world is called Mister Chlorine, he is said to be Edenor’s biggest customer and that since the time of Mauricio Macri, he wanted to venture into electricity. So it is allowed to transcend a long-standing relationship with Manzano, who would have added it for the transaction, which so far has not been approved by regulators.

Filiberti, 72, started in the chlorine business when, in 1987, he imported surpluses from Uruguay to Argentina. It had its first factory ready in 1989 and since then it has been the major supplier of sanitary work, which continued with the French of Suez who were associated with Santiago Soldati during its privatization, and currently with the renationalized Aysa.

These sales represent 20% of your turnover. The contract with AySa, similar to the one that currently counts with various provincial and municipal water utilities, made it grow until it expands. a water treatment industry, which provides the full service, including logistics with sophisticated delivery trucks.

Of course, we make sure that he does not have direct contracts with public enterprises but rather calls for tenders. What is certain is that no competitor is known. From the high-tech factory in the Pilar industrial park, some 25,000 tonnes of chlorine per month, in addition to coagulants and even the glyphosate base which is used in planting crops. Virtually almost all of the chlorine consumed, even in the form of bleach Along with the best-known brands on the supermarket shelves, it is produced in the Filiberti factory.

Your next industrial adventure is a new factory where just invested $ 30 million with Swedish technology for the export of polyaluminum chloride, which is used to settle inorganic matter in waters.

When asked about his relationship with the trade unionist José Luis Lingeri (historic secretary general of the workers of the Sanitary Works and heavyweight of the CGT), they slip that is very close since the union member “closely follows every Aysa contract”.

He is obviously a very close man. For his last birthday, in the exclusive seaside resort of José Ignacio, Uruguay, at the parador de La Caracola, which is only accessible on a boat provided by the owners of the place, Federico Salvai and his wife Carolina Stanley were there just before the pandemic. and Augusto Rodríguez Larreta, brother of the head of government of Buenos Aires, to Pepe Scioli, the brother of the current Ambassador to Brazil, Daniel Scioli. They also link it with the president of the Chamber of Deputies, Sergio massa: his wife, Malena Galmarini, is the president of AySA. Filiberti does not deny having a good relationship with Massa, also in close contact with Vila and Manzano.

One of his most valuable possessions, which he justifies by his passion for sailing, is the 64Steel Attila, the mega yacht which he acquired two years ago, valued at over $ 20 million. The ship, built by the Sanlorenzo Americas shipyard, located in Fort Lauderdale, It is 64 meters long and it is one of the most luxurious in the hands of national businessmen. Moored in Saint Tropez. Maurcio Macri came to meet him in 2020, a few days before taking up his new position as president of the FIFA Foundation in Geneva.

Those who know him well, who are few in number, report that just as he likes to sail, he hates to fly. Maybe that’s why your air taxi company was left in the hands of his ex-wife. This is no small feat, since each aircraft in the fleet is valued at over a million dollars.

Filiberti, remarried to a young model, appeared in some court cases that in their environment minimize the importance. The best known is that he had sold a Californian Ferrari model – they say for $ 380,000 – to businessman and real estate developer Carlos Morinari, himself linked to Leonardo Fariña, to the point that he paid the marriage with the model Karina Jelinek. In 2017, due to money laundering carried out by the government of Mauricio Macri, he was mentioned as having extracted $ 13 million from the country.