Foreign Funds Will Be Central to Venezuela’s Recovery, Investor Says

A group of about 20 US investors is already planning to travel to Venezuela in March, following Saturday’s news that the country’s president, Nicolás Maduro, had been taken into US custody.

Charles Myers, the chairman of the political risk advisory firm Signum Global Advisors and a former vice-chairman of the investment advisory firm Evercore, told Business Insider that the mood among investors he has spoken to is one of “cautious optimism” following news of Maduro’s ouster.

“I think the centerpiece of Venezuela’s success, looking out 12 months or even 24 months, is foreign investment,” Myers said. “A big part of the Venezuela story, starting today, is foreign investment, especially in oil and gas, which is pretty straightforward, but there are massive opportunities in construction, in tourism.”

Myers said it’s not the responsibility of his firm to take a “moral position” on whether it was right or wrong for the US to involve itself in Venezuela’s government, but rather to help the firm’s clients anticipate investment opportunities or mitigate risk due to geopolitical events.

However, he added, his firm “very much expected” the situation in Venezuela would unfold as it has, and has been preparing investor groups to be ready to travel to the country when the opportunity presents itself. Signum previously hosted similar trips for asset managers and hedge funds to visit Syria and Ukraine.

“People have seen this coming, especially very smart investors, and many of them have actually bought bonds in anticipation of this,” Myers said. “But there’s a very strong degree of cautious optimism, even more so than we saw with Syria, just because this is a United States-directed action.”

“The United States will play a pivotal role in everything, especially the Venezuelan economy, starting today,” Myers added, “So, I think the reaction has been more enthusiastic than perhaps other situations like this.”