The Argentine government releases YPF shares... for now

Following the government's request, the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in New York ordered an indefinite suspension of the delivery of YPF shares.

This decision comes within the framework of Judge Loretta Preska's ruling, which ordered Argentina to surrender 51% of the oil company's shares two weeks ago.

"In each of the aforementioned appeals, the appellant requests a stay pending the appeal of the District Court's June 30, 2025, Surrender Order, and requests a provisional administrative stay," states the Court of Appeals statement obtained by El Cronista.

And it continues: “The appellees have indicated their opposition to the request for a stay pending appeal, but they do not oppose the filing of a temporary administrative stay to allow for the orderly filing and consideration of the request for a stay.”

At the same time, the U.S. Justice Department ordered that "the Court grant a temporary administrative stay of the District Court's Transfer Order pending the resolution of the stay request by a three-judge panel."

Meanwhile, it urges the appellees to submit "their opposition to the request before July 17, 2025," while the appellant "must submit his reply before July 22, 2025."

The government went to the Court of Appeals on Monday afternoon, seeking a temporary suspension of the transfer of the state-owned company's shares.

The Argentine defense appealed two key court decisions: the ruling requiring the country to pay compensation of $16.1 billion plus interest, and the order requiring the surrender of 51% of YPF's shares.

The appeal was filed after Preska rejected Argentina's request to suspend the transfer of shares to the Burford Capital and Eton Park funds, as well as to the Bainbridge fund. However, the State had three more days to appeal the judge's decision.

As the ruling party informed this newspaper, the country had not violated any order, as the judge granted it three more days to request a suspension before the Court of Appeals. Now, with the court's decision, there is no longer any risk of contempt.

However, the judge argued that the country "has abused the Court's concessions and, therefore, will not be granted additional concessions." In this regard, she argued that she had already granted the possibility of appeal in January 2024 in exchange for a minimum guarantee, although this action was not carried out.

After expropriating 51% of YPF's shares from the Spanish oil company Repsol in 2012, Judge Loretta Preska sentenced Argentina to bankruptcy in 2023, given that the State failed to carry out a public acquisition offer for other shareholders.

Following this ruling, and after acquiring the litigation rights of two companies that went bankrupt (Petersen Energía Inversora and Petersen Energía), the Burford Capital and Eton Park funds filed a lawsuit against the State in 2015.

These two companies, belonging to the Petersen Group (Eskenazi family), held 25% of the oil company's shares, which Repsol acquired in 2008 and 2011.