A U.S. judge has ordered Argentina’s government to transfer its 51% stake in energy major YPF to two former minority shareholders who sued after the nationalization of the company.
Back in 2012, Argentina seized 51% of YPF from its owner, Spanish Repsol. But YPF also had two smaller shareholders, Petersen Energia Inversora and Eton Park Capital, Reuters recalls in a report on the new ruling. These two sued in the United States, and in 2023, District Judge Loretta Preska ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, ordering Argentina to pay damages worth some $16 billion.
In that ruling, Judge Preska said Argentina had violated the rights of minority shareholders by not offering to buy their stakes in YPF as well, slapping Argentina with a massive damages bill. Most of the damages would actually go to Burford Capital, the firm that financed the litigation, to the tune of 70% of Petersen’s share and 75% of Eton Park Capital’s share. Argentina is appealing the original ruling.
“With this judgment Preska is saying that Argentina has been ignoring all of this court’s decisions and now it’s time to pay up,” Sebastian Maril, a director at consultancy Latam Advisors, told the Financial Times. “This is a wave that has been building for years and is now breaking over Milei.”
YPF has been doing rather well lately, mostly thanks to the development of the Vaca Muerta shale formation, considered to be the biggest unconventional oil and gas deposit outside of the United States. That development, in which YPF plays a lead role, has helped move Argentina closer to energy self-sufficiency, with Rystad Energy reporting earlier this year that output from the shale play had topped 447,000 barrels daily in March. That was up from 354,000 barrels daily a year earlier.
By Charles Kennedy for Oilprice.com
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