On Friday, a US judge ruled that Argentina must pay about $16.1 billion to two firms that were denied compensation for their ownership of minority stakes in the YPF oil giant when it was nationalized in 2012.
Federal judge Loretta Preska established the sums that Argentina must compensate Petersen Energia and Eton Park Capital in a decision that extended on a prior verdict in their favor.
Preska mandated that Petersen Energia get $6.85 billion in interest in addition to $7.5 billion in damages from the South American country.
She also mandated that Argentina reimburse Eton Park Capital for damages and interest totaling roughly $1.7 billion.
The dispute stems back to when Argentina expropriated 51% of the stock in the largest energy corporation, YPF, in 2012. YPF was largely held by Spanish behemoth Repsol at the time.
Argentina, which has a runaway annual inflation rate of over 120% and is embroiled in an economic and political crisis, said on August 9 that it would appeal the decision. The time limit is 30 days.
Additionally, Preska declared in the ruling that “all of plaintiffs’ claims against defendant YPF SA are dismissed” along with all of the plaintiffs’ other claims.
The YPF shares are traded on the New York Stock Exchange, hence the expropriation lawsuit was filed in US courts.
The court stated in her decision dated August 9 that she had agreed with the plaintiffs’ claims, including those made by the law firm Burford Capital, which had paid $16.6 million to acquire the litigation rights.
Two years after YPF was nationalized by Argentina, Repsol, a Spanish major, received $5 billion as compensation to end a legal dispute.
The Petersen Group and Eton Park Capital, which together owned 25.4% of YPF’s capital, disagreed, and in 2015 they filed a lawsuit, claiming that the nation had not made a takeover attempt in accordance with the law.
