A new regulation on investment vehicles in Argentina has been issued by the General Inspectorate of Justice (Inspección General de Justicia, or IGJ), by means of the General Resolution No. 8/2021 published on the Official Gazette on 17 May 2021.

Under IGJ´s General Resolution No. 7/2015, those foreign companies that cannot show evidence that they have their main business activity abroad, or hold fixed assets, and/or interests in companies outside Argentina, may be registered as investment vehicles as long as their controlling companies meet those criteria.

When filing for registration before the IGJ and pursuant to Article No. 1 of the General Resolution No. 8/2021, investment vehicles in Argentina should consider that:

(i) The status of the investment vehicle must be stated at the time of its registration in Argentina. The condition of being an investment vehicle shall not be admitted in a supervening manner;

(ii) Only one investment vehicle per group may be registered:

(iii) Registration shall be denied when:

1. a) their direct or indirect controlling company is registered in Argentina;
2. b) they result from a chain of control between successive single-partner companies.

Further to the other applicable requirements, the new General Resolution No. 8-2021 also states that foreign companies filing for registration with the IGJ as investment vehicles must also submit an investment plan, signed by the legal representative, including the following data: the list of the companies they intend to take interest in or incorporate in Argentina; the companies’ addresses and names – in the case of already incorporated companies -; the effective activity carried out by the foreign companies abroad; the effective activity carried out or to be carried out by the domestic companies; the identification of the other partners; and the number of shares or holdings they plan to acquire (Article 3).

The General Resolution No. 8/2021 has also amended several provisions regulating the general registration of foreign companies in Argentina, which we will extensively review in a shortly upcoming article.

Mario E. Castro Sammartino

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