US Judge Loretta Preska ruled that Argentina must transfer 51% of YPF's Class D shares to the beneficiaries of the ruling for the oil company's expropriation. The decision was announced in recent hours and represents a new judicial setback for the country in the litigation initiated by the Burford Capital fund.
“The Argentine Republic will transfer its Class D shares of YPF to a global custodial account at BNYM in New York within 14 days of the date of this order; and will instruct BNYM to initiate the transfer of the Republic’s interest in its Class D shares of YPF to Plaintiffs or their designees within one business day of the day the shares are deposited into the account,” Preska stated in his ruling.
The judge also rejected Argentina's request for an additional oral hearing, effectively closing the case at this stage."Convinced that it is not necessary to present oral arguments in addition to the documents submitted by the parties, the Republic's request for oral arguments is denied, and the Clerk of the Tribunal is respectfully requested to close this case," she ruled.
Latam Advisors analyst Sebastián Marill explained that the Argentine government should have deposited a guarantee in January 2024 to prevent the embargoes from moving forward while the appeal initiated in October 2023 was resolved. “This should have happened in January 2024, but no deposit was made. The next step is that American law gives you the right to seize assets from, in this case, the Argentine Republic,” he told TN.
Among the assets eligible for seizure, the state-owned YPF stock holdings were targeted."A year and a half later, after several submissions and counterrecommendations from the United States Department of Justice, Preska granted the beneficiaries' request and is forcing Argentina to hand over the YPF shares as part of payment," Marill added.
Despite this decision, the Argentine government plans to appeal again, which will take the case to the Court of Appeals. If successful, this would be the third active appeal in this extensive litigation, which also includes one filed by the NGO Republican Action for Argentina (RA4ARG) and another filed by the Argentine government itself in November 2023.
