Show Notes
When the hedge fund Elliott Management pursued the acquisition of the oil refinery business Citgo a few years ago, the deal was already a complicated one. A US court had ordered its current owner, Venezuela, to sell the business, and the country was not happy about it. But, things only got thornier after the US President Donald Trump removed the Caribbean nation’s leader Nicolás Maduro. The FT’s US investment correspondent Amelia Pollard and hedge fund correspondent Costas Mourselas explain how Elliott often thrives pursuing complex deals, and how they might navigate closing this one.
Clips from Citgo, CNN, Norges Bank Investment Management, The White House, VTV
The FT does not use generative AI to voice its podcasts.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
For further reading: Donald Trump’s removal of Maduro clouds fate of Elliott’s Citgo deal How Venezuela lost Citgo Hedge funds hunt for Venezuela’s unpaid financial claims
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -
Follow Costas Mourselas on X (@CostasMourselas) and Bluesky (@costasmourselas.bsky.social). Amelia Pollard is on X (@ameliajpollard) and Bluesky (@pollard.bsky.social). Michela Tindera is on X (@mtindera07) and Bluesky (@mtindera.ft.com), or follow her on LinkedIn for updates about the show and more.
Read a transcript of this episode on FT.com Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.
More from The Story of Money
The French Revolution was a bloody fight for liberty, equality and fraternity. But it was also a battle over money.
The French Revolution was a bloody fight for liberty, equality and fraternity. But it was also a battle over money.
The first world war was one of the deadliest conflicts the world has ever seen. And when the US entered the war in 1917, it faced a massive financial challenge: how to pay for its contribution? Enter Treasury Secretary William McAdoo who launches the groundbreaking Liberty Loan Programme and - alongside an unprecedented national propaganda campaign featuring silent film stars like Charlie Chaplin, Girl Scouts, even a captured German submarine in Central Park - encourages thousands of Americans to ‘buy a bond’ as part of their patriotic duty.
The US Treasury market - the world's largest government bond market - is worth about $32tn today, making it the largest pile of debt accumulated in history. But its roots lie in medieval Venice, a bloody military disaster and a leader who was forced to raise a loan to fund a war against the Byzantine Empire.
How do you tell if an economy is actually working? Most economics classes point to controlled inflation, steady growth, or low unemployment - but what if the level of financial fraud is the real hidden indicator?