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Burford Capital Ltd on Monday called a US appeals court decision that overturned a $16 billion judgement against Argentina for nationalising the oil company YPF in 2012 ‘very disappointing’ and an ‘abandonment of minority shareholder rights’. London- and New York-based Burford, which was funding the case, said it will need to take a partial non-cash write-down of its YPF litigation assets as a result. It said the size of the write down is still to be decided, but the ‘substantial’ carrying value of the YPF case in its balance share means the write-down may restrict its ability to issue new debt and make new investments. Burford shares closed down 42% in London on Friday after the court decision. The stock was down a further 2.0% to 332.30 early Monday in London. It is down 67% over the past 12 months. Burford has a market capitalisation of £724.8 million. More positively on Monday, Burford said the plaintiffs are likely to start investment treaty arbitration against Argentina, and the South American country ‘has lost many such investment arbitrations in the past, including a substantial claim funded by Burford that yielded a highly successful result’. Burford said the plaintiffs also may seek a rehearing by the entire Second Circuit court, but it said the US court ‘rarely grants such requests’. The ruling was a big victory for President Javier Milei as he tries to boost Argentina’s troubled economy, AFP reported on Friday. ‘We won the YPF trial,’ Milei wrote in capital letters on the social media platform X, calling the 2-1 ruling by the 2nd US Circuit Court of Appeals in New York the ‘best possible outcome.’ The court struck down a 2023 ruling from Judge Loretta Preska of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York that ordered Argentina to pay $16.1 billion to minority shareholder companies she said were harmed by the nationalisation of YPF. The appeals court on Friday said that breach of contract claims made by these companies were not recognisable under Argentine law. The case was heard in the US rather than Argentina mainly because YPF is listed on the New York Stock Exchange. Jurisdiction was consistently an issue, as Argentina argued the case should be argued back home but in the end the US courts kept it in New York. In the expropriation, the Argentine state took over 51% of YPF, which at the time was partially controlled by the Spain’s Repsol SA. Two years later Repsol was awarded $5 billion in damages but smaller shareholders like Petersen Energia Inversora and Eton Park Capital Management, which together controlled a 25.4% stake, got nothing and sued in 2015. They argued that the government had not made a tender offer, as mandated by Argentine law, to these two companies, which were YPF’s second- and third-largest investors. Argentina has argued that having to pay the settlement $18 billion including interest, it says would cause severe harm to the finances of a country with persistent debt and inflation problems. It said the settlement would have amounted to a large chunk of its foreign currency reserves. YPF is an emblematic Argentine company founded in the early 20th century as a state-owned entity but it was privatised in 1993 and eventually came under the control of Repsol. Then-president Cristina Kirchner re-nationalised YPF in 2012, arguing that it did not produce enough oil and gas to satisfy Argentine demand. ‘We understand - and share - the market’s disappointment with Friday’s court decision regarding YPF,’ Burford said on Monday. ‘While we are optimistic about an eventual positive outcome in the case given the availability of international arbitration, we recognise that represents a meaningful delay in expected cash proceeds and affects investors’ views about Burford’s present value. ‘Although the outcome was disappointing, we have always treated YPF as separate and apart from Burford’s core business. Burford is run on a cash basis, and does not rely, or count on, cash from the YPF case to operate the business; YPF has always been additional to the core business, and we have repeatedly described it that way.’ Copyright 2026 Alliance News Ltd. All Rights Reserved.
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