, Columnist
Who Won Repsol’s War With Argentina?
So, Repsol clearly lost this fight so far. But who has won?
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Argentina's apparent offer to pay Repsol SA $5 billion for having seized its majority stake in the Argentine energy company YPF may come close to the best deal the Spanish oil giant will get. By announcing today that it "views favourably" Argentina's "heads of agreement," Repsol is verging upon finally losing a 19-month battle for compensation.
The offer is less than half the $10.5 billion Repsol originally sought for the 51 percent stake in YPF, which President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner nationalized last year. Repsol based its estimate on a valuation method that the Argentine government included in the YPF bylaws when it privatized the company in 1993. But Fernandez has refused to honor that.