Argentina will have to pay US$ 16,099 million for the nationalization of oil company YPF

A US judge ruled on Friday that Argentina must pay US$ 16,099 million to two companies that were not compensated after the nationalization of the oil company YPF in 2012.

Argentina will have to pay the Petersen company US$ 14,385 million, of which US$ 7,533 for damages and US$ 6,852 for 8% interest, while Eton Park is entitled to US$ 1,714 million, of which US$ 897 million for damages and US$ 816 million for interest of 8%, according to the amount announced this Friday by the investigating judge Loretta Preska, who had already ruled in favor of the plaintiffs on September 8.

Likewise, the judge determined that the two companies have the right to receive interests after the ruling of 5.42% annually until the ruling is fulfilled.

The Argentine government, which had announced that it would appeal the ruling, has 30 days to do so.

In the ruling, Preska also “orders” to dismiss all of the plaintiffs’ other claims including claims for anticipatory breach, the duty of good faith and fair dealing, and promissory estoppel against the Argentine state and against YPF.

In her ruling on September 8, the judge announced that she had accepted the plaintiffs’ arguments.

In that decision, Preska had not determined the amount of compensation, which he did this Friday.

The Burford Capital law firm, specialized in the purchase of third-party litigation, paid US$16.6 million to finance the lawsuits, so it could be the main beneficiary of this ruling.

The case dates back to 2012 when Argentina nationalized the oil company YPF, controlled by the Spanish group Repsol. Two years later, the Spanish company was compensated with US$5,000 million to settle the dispute.

This is not the case with other minority shareholders such as the Petersen Group or Eton Park Capital (25.4% of YPF’s capital), which in 2015 filed a lawsuit, alleging that the country had not submitted a public acquisition offer as provided for by law.

At that time, the Argentine Minister of Economy, Axel Kicillof, assured that this requirement would have been a “trap” and only a “moronic” would expect that Argentina and YPF complied with it.

In June 2019, the United States Supreme Court rejected the request for Argentina for the dispute to be settled in the country’s courts, and last March, Judge Preska determined that Argentina He was responsible for the losses suffered by the nationalization of the oil company.

With information from AFP