Nicolás Dujovne, who served as Argentina’s economy minister until 2019, saw his hedge fund firm Tenac Global Fund, deliver a stellar 22% net gain in 2024, buoyed by strategic bets on high-risk sovereign debt, particularly Argentine bonds, according to a report by the Buenos Aires Times.

Tenac’s 2024 returns significantly outpaced the broader market, more than tripling the performance of developing-world benchmarks. According to industry data from BarclayHedge, Tenac ranked as the second-best emerging market fixed-income hedge fund globally, with its Argentine bond positions alone contributing nearly 700 basis points to its performance.

With approximately $144m in assets under management, Tenac capitalised on a surge in Argentine debt prices, spurred by President Javier Milei’s market-friendly economic agenda. Milei’s reforms have sent sovereign bond prices soaring to levels not seen since Dujovne’s tenure as Argentina’s economic chief under former President Mauricio Macri.

After leaving government in 2019 amid a turbulent post-election selloff, Dujovne co-founded Tenac in 2020 alongside Fernando Jasnis, also a former Economy Ministry official, and José Antonio González Anaya, Mexico’s former finance minister. They were later joined by Pablo Guidotti, a senior Argentine official from the 1990s.

The hedge fund’s gains were part of a broader rally in high-yield emerging market (EM) debt. A Bloomberg index tracking EM high-yield dollar bonds surged 15% in 2024, marking its best performance since 2016. Credits from Argentina and Lebanon delivered triple-digit returns, while investment-grade EM debt lagged at just 1.9%.