page_title: Sebastián Piñera
section_title: Private to public transition
hierarchical_section_title: Sebastián Piñera / Political career / Private to public transition
caption_attribution_description: El Presidente de Chile Sebastián Piñera en reunión con el Primer Ministro del Reino Unido, David Cameron
context_page_description: Miguel Juan Sebastián Piñera Echenique is a Chilean billionaire businessman, who is President of Chile since 2018, having previously served from 2010 to 2014.
  The son of a Christian democratic politician and diplomat, he studied business engineering at the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile and economics at the Harvard University. He had an estimated net worth of 2.8 billion dollars in 2019 according to Forbes, making him one of the richest people in Chile.
  A member of the right National Renewal party, he served as a senator for the East Santiago district from 1990 to 1998, running for the presidency in the 2005 election, which he lost to Michelle Bachelet, and again, successfully, in 2010. As a result, he became the first conservative president to be democratically elected since 1958, and the first to hold the office since the departure of Augusto Pinochet in 1990.
context_section_description: Piñera became the first billionaire to be sworn into the Chilean Presidency.  He offered to sell his shares in major corporations before being sworn in on 11 March 2010, in order to avoid conflicts of interest. Piñera has placed US$400 million in blind trusts.
  The Monday following Piñera's election, expectations of sale from his largest holdings created a surge in trade of Axxion and LAN shares, causing three brief suspensions (19–20, 22 January 2010) in the Santiago Stock Exchange in order to ease trade. Axxion shares more than tripled before falling 39% on Friday, 22 January. Bachelet's Finance Minister Andrés Velasco urged Piñera to get the sale "sorted out quickly." The value of Piñera's interest in Axxion was estimated at 700 million dollars USD, of his 1.2 billion dollar USD fortune at the beginning of that week.
  On 5 February, Piñera confirmed plans to sell his 26.3% stake in LAN airlines at an extraordinary shareholders' meeting for his main holding company, Axxion. Under the pact, Axxion shareholders have agreed to fix the price of the sale, estimated at US$1.5 billion. The Cueto family, who at that point held 25.5% of LAN through their holding company Costa Verde Aeronáutica, had the first option to purchase the stake. On 18 February, Axxion posted a statement on their website confirming the sale of a 21.18% stake in LAN Airlines to the Cueto family for US$1.23 billion. Announcement regarding the sale of the remaining shares was pending until March 2010, when the whole package left Piñera's hands.
  Piñera sold his 9.7% stake in the upscale private hospital Clinica Las Condes at a price of 25,113 CLP per share (US$48.00) through his holding company Bancard on Tuesday, 16 February. The total sale of the 792,000 shares grossed US$37.85 million and was purchased by the brokerage firm Celfin.  The proceeds from the sale will go to paying off Bancard debt.
  Piñera announced on February he had the intention to transfer 100% of his stake in Chilevisión to a non-for-profit organization called Fundación Cultura y Sociedad (formerly Fundación Futuro), of which he is owner. The foundation's board will include some of the station's current executives. Under that proposal, Piñera maintains the right to remove and replace the foundation's president at any given time. Cristián Patricio Larroulet Vignau, current Minister of the Secretariat of the Presidency of Chile, stated that Piñera was honoring his promise of removing himself from private corporations, as Chilevision will become the property of a non-profit organization. MP Cristián Monckeberg (RN), stated there is no law obligating Piñera to do otherwise and thus this decision is legally legitimate.. The option above finally did not take place, Piñera decided to sell the TV station, and after a failed attempt in May 2010 with the Linzor Capital investment fund, the President announced it sold Chilevisión to Time Warner, in late August 2010.
  Piñera said he won't sell his 12.5% stake in Blanco y Negro, company that owns the nation's popular soccer team Colo-Colo. He has stated, "We want big things and not only achieve local victories. The idea is to return the Copa Libertadores to Chile. That is our great goal." Although he will remain part owner, he will take no administrative duties or role while President.
caption: Piñera with David Cameron, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, outside 10 Downing Street, London
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