“New” YPF first shareholders’ meeting turns dividends into investment fund
Argentina’s seized oil and gas corporation YPF drastically cut dividend payments and created an investment fund following the first shareholders meeting since the nationalization by President Cristina Fernandez.
YPF approved the results of the 2011 budget and allocated dividend payments of 66 million dollars, or 5.7% of last year’s profit, according to a regulatory filing distributed after the shareholder meeting on Tuesday.
Argentina seized 51% of YPF from Spain’s Repsol SA as President Cristina Fernandez government seeks to halt declining oil output and stem fuel imports that doubled to 9.4 billion dollars last year.
The Argentine government opposed the original suggestion for this year from Repsol which was for YPF to distribute 80% of profits as dividends.
Shareholders also expressed their opposition to “the previous administration characterized by falling oil and gas reserves, production and exploration,” the company said in the statement.
Chief Executive Officer Miguel Galuccio allocated 1.3 billion dollars of earnings toward total planned investment in 2012 of 3.5 billion. Investment last year, under Repsol, was 3.1 billion, according to a filing sent to the stock exchange in February.
YPF shares have tumbled 49% in Buenos Aires trading this year
The meeting which lasted over six hours was headed by YPF CEO Miguel Galuccio and the government’s Economic Policy Secretary Axel Kiciloff. Repsol representatives also attended since the Spanish group still holds a 12% stake; Itau bank from Brazil with 3.6% also sent a representative as did the group Inbursa which holds 8.3%. This last group belongs to Mexican communications tycoon, Carlos Slim
The shareholders assembly coincides with the launching by the Argentine government of an aggressive campaign to attract foreign investors and help the company develop its full potential.
CEO Galuccio is preparing a tour of the US in search of investors in Houston and New York with promises YPF is rapidly recovering the levels of production it had a few years ago and lost during the management of Spain’s Repsol.
Suggested Stories
-
May 16th 2013
Chevron agrees to invest 1.5bn dollars in developing YPF shale field in Patagonia
-
May 18th 2013
Venezuelan oil monopoly in joint ventures with Chevron and China Petroleum
-
May 16th 2013
Argentina challenges EU bio-diesel import restriction rules before WTO
-
May 15th 2013
Spain no longer discusses Argentina’s ‘sovereign decision to seek energy sector control”
13 comments Feed
Note: Comments do not reflect MercoPress’ opinions. They are the personal view of our users. We wish to keep this as open and unregulated as possible. However, rude or foul language, discriminative comments (based on ethnicity, religion, gender, nationality, sexual orientation or the sort), spamming or any other offensive or inappropriate behaviour will not be tolerated. Please report any inadequate posts to the editor. Comments must be in English. Thank you.
Does this guy like being laughed at?
If the investment by Repsol wasn't a good enough deal for YPF then why on earth would a US company want to accept a worse deal with all the added country risk involved?
Argentina doesn't seem to understand that people invest for profit - not to further the agenda of the national government.
Most nations try to attract investment but South American nations have the attitude that they are doing the investors a favour. Money goes where it receives the best returns. Not a difficult concept.
They have already tryed getting investoment out of America earlier this year. It failed no US company is intrested in Investing in an environment where there will be no shareholder profits or divindens. CFK believes foreign compnaiues should invest because they are kind people not becuase they run buisness.
“Chief Executive Officer Miguel Galuccio allocated 1.3 billion dollars of earnings toward total planned investment in 2012 of 3.5 billion”. From this we can see that YPF needs to raise 2.2 billion dollers of foreign investment just to meet this years target let alone the next 2/3/5 years. This compnay will go the same way as Aerolinius and be run at a loss year on year. The only people vaguley intrested in investing will be China (and I doubt it as they didnt say anything on hydrocarbon investment during the visit this year) and they will extract a very very cost of this.
YPF is doomed, what CFK cannot see is that privitisating a compnay when you do not have the capital required to invest in that compnay is a policy doomed to fail. not that she thought about that at the time as this was a decision taken to create a short term popularist rise in support not a long term decision made to produce a more stable nation.
I wonder how long they can run YPF before total collapse? A year, two?
Does anyone think CFK will actually last until then?
What the Chinese didn't say is that their investment would buy up ALL the production of Vaca Muerta!!!!!
Bicycles for everyone.
The answer to your question is: both.
Where there is oil, investment will follow, even in Argentina.
I think Condorito is right, Galuccio will fund the investors, but only if Kretina frees up the well head price of the crude.
CEO Galuccio is preparing a tour of the US in search of investors in Houston and New York with promises YPF is rapidly recovering the levels of production it had a few years ago and lost during the management of Spain’s Repsol.
This has allready been tried twice this year! and coming on the back of a 5% payout (thats gonna tempt investors!)
Anyone know when the 100 days is up so we can hear how Miguel Galuccio the ceo is going to turn the company around?
The only way the government can gain this investment will be to increase prices (something it did not allow YPF to do under Repsol) this will harm many Argentines both in fuel for cars as well as heating.
Energy prices on the verge of soaring which will of course increase inflation and lead to an economic collapse which could of been prevented by a sensible and responsible goverment.
Commenting for this story is now closed.
If you have a Facebook account, become a fan and comment on our Facebook Page!