Repsol Agrees To Sell Another 3.3% Of YPF For $500 Million

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Repsol said Thursday it has agreed to sell 3.3% of YPF’s share capital to Eton Park and Capital for $500 million. YPF is Argentina’s largest privately-owned company and one of Latin-America’s leading energy companies.

The $39/share deal is in line with the most significant sales carried out during the last few weeks with YPF stock.

Eton Park has acquired a 1.63% stake in YPF, for $250 million. Similarly, Capital has acquired an identical stake at the same price.

Additionally, Eton Park acquired warrants to buy, in one or multiple transactions, a further 1.63% of YPF at $43/share.

The warrants are exercisable until January 17, 2012.

These transactions are part of Repsol’s strategic plan to rebalance its portfolio of assets, the company said.

“These transactions help to increase the value of Repsol and brings us closer to achieving one of our key strategic goals,” said Repsol Chairman Antonio Brufau.

After these transactions, YPF’s ownership structure is as follows: Repsol Group (79.84%), Petersen Group (15.46%) and a 4.69% free float.

This process is part of Repsol’s strategy, as laid out in the Horizon 2014 plan, to partially divest in YPF to rebalance its global asset portfolio.

Repsol has granted Capital a put option to sell the ADS at $39/share in proportion to the amount by which the stock acquired by Capital exceeds 15% of YPF’s public float at December 22, 2011. Given that YPF’s current free float is already 4.7%, an additional 6.2% needs to be sold in the market to avoid the option being exercised. Independently of these transactions, YPF filed a registration statement with the United States’ Securities Exchange Commission (SEC) in November, not yet effective, so that Repsol may sell as much as 15% of YPF shares in the market.

The ADS subject to this transaction have not been registered under the US Securities Act of 1933 and may not be offered or sold in the United States absent registration or an applicable exemption from registration requirements.

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