Latin American Economy & Business - May 2014 (ISSN 1741-7430)

Repsol, the Spanish oil major, has finally disentangled itself from Argentina. It had held a majority stake in Argentina’s Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales (YPF) and was caught out when the Argentine government renationalised YPF in May 2012, effectively expropriating most of the Spanish company’s shares. After a series of international lawsuits, the Buenos Aires government and Repsol finally agreed a US$5bn compensation package payable in Argentine government bonds. On 23 May Repsol said it had sold all the bonds and its remaining shares, netting a total of US$6.3bn.