The “Kicillof tax” to pay Argentina 16,000 million for the expropriation of YPF to Repsol

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Argentine President Javier Milei plans to introduce a tax, the “Kicillof tax,” a reference to Cristina Kirchner’s minister responsible for the expropriation of oil company YPF’s Repsol in 2012, for $16 billion in compensation which was paid last September. A federal court in New York ordered Argentina to pay the Burford Capital fund.

The new Argentine government, led by Javier Milei since December 10th, asked Judge Loretta Preska in a letter dated December 19th for a thirty-day extension to appeal the ruling.

But three days later, the US court refused to grant the Argentine authorities an extension of time to post a bond for the $16 billion and to submit the appeal documents.

The New York Federal Court also noted that Argentina must meet the scheduled dates of January 10 for submitting the guarantee and January 30 for appealing the ruling.

Given this situation, Milei announced on Tuesday evening in an interview on the channel LN+ that he would introduce a tax in the name of the current governor of the province of Buenos Aires, Axel Kicillof, who, in his capacity as Minister of Economy of Buenos Aires, is leading the government of Cristina Kirchner (2007-2015) was the proponent of the expropriation of YPF.

We don’t have to pay $16 billion

“There is a problem because we don’t have the money. We don’t have to pay $16 billion. “Yes, we have the willingness to pay,” admitted the Argentine head of state, an economist by profession.

“One of the ideas we are working on is the introduction of the ‘(Axel) Kicillof tax’ (…) which all Argentines will have to pay a certain dollar amount every year thanks to the monstrous mistake that Kicillof made,” he told Javier Milei.

Argentina bought 51% of YPF shares from Spain’s Repsol without a takeover offer

In 2012, Argentina bought 51% of YPF shares from the Spanish company Repsol without making a public takeover offer (OPA) to the remaining shareholders who claimed they had been harmed.

The Burford Capital fund, owner of the Petersen Group’s assets, assumed that the government would have to pay it $16 billion, but Argentine authorities estimated that compensation should be $5 billion.

The process of nationalizing YPF began in 2015 following the bankruptcy of the Petersen Group, which had become the property of YPF. Burford Capital, a fund specialized in this type of litigation, bought the bankruptcies of Petersen Energía Inversora and Petersen Energía in Spain, the two companies created by the owners of the holding company to be able to file the lawsuit in New York.