Who is Eduardo Elsztain, the businessman whose bold bets took him from shopping malls to the Falklands

For more than three decades, Eduardo Elsztain has built his business career by betting against consensus. The instinct that led him to New York in the early 1990s to persuade George Soros to invest in Buenos Aires offices also drove him toward neglected city land, mining and a visible relationship with Javier Milei before Milei came to power.

Elsztain bought land in depreciated areas such as Abasto when few expected a recovery. He also promoted the redevelopment of Boca’s former sports city over nearly three decades and entered mining before the sector became central to corporate agendas and before Argentina’s RIGI investment regime existed. The same appetite for risk, however, shaped less successful ventures.

Those included an unsuccessful attempt to rescue the Israeli conglomerate IDB and a controversial 2005 investment in the Falkland Islands Company. Elsztain said the investment reflected an effort to gain Argentine economic presence in the Falklands. Across these projects, the same conviction runs through his strategy: seek opportunities where most people see risk, uncertainty or problems.

Real estate was also a family inheritance. His grandfather Isaac founded IRSA in 1943, and the company became one of Buenos Aires’ leading real estate firms. When Eduardo took control in the 1990s, however, it had only 100,000 pesos in capital. Elsztain had just finished secondary school at Colegio Nacional Buenos Aires and was studying economics at the University of Buenos Aires, a degree he never completed.

With Soros’ backing and his own ability to develop new businesses, Elsztain built an empire that now includes Buenos Aires shopping centers Alto Palermo, Patio Bullrich, Paseo Alcorta and Abasto. His holdings also include about one million hectares of agricultural and cattle land through Cresud, luxury hotels such as Llao-Llao, InterContinental and Sheraton Libertador, and landmark buildings including the Rulero in Retiro and Laminar Plaza in Catalinas. In recent years, he has expanded beyond agriculture and real estate through Austral Gold, where he serves as chairman and principal shareholder.