(Reuters) – Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim and his family have taken a stake in Argentina’s recently renationalized energy company YPF (YPFD.BA) in lieu of a loan guarantee, but they have no plans to increase it for now, his spokesman said.
YPF said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that the Slims now own 8.4 percent of Class D shares of the company. It was not immediately clear how big an overall stake that represented.
Argentine President Cristina Fernandez seized control of YPF from Repsol (REP.MC) in April, accusing the Spanish oil company of investing too little and making the country increasingly reliant on pricey imports.
The move slammed YPF’s stock price and was met by howls from European trade partners and investors.
No comments were immediately available from YPF’s Buenos Aires headquarters. The SEC filing said the Slim family’s Inmobiliaria Carso and Grupo Financiero Inbursa held the shares.
Slim’s spokesman, Arturo Elias Ayub, told Reuters the Slims did not plan to increase their stake in YPF for now.
“We think the company is solid and has good growth potential,” he said. “In time, we will analyze our options.”
YPF’s stock price hit 10-year lows earlier this week after the company said on June 5 that it would need to invest $7 billion a year to boost flagging natural gas and oil output by more than a quarter by 2017.
A source close to the situation told Reuters that Slim had acquired the shares from banks that had helped Argentina’s Petersen Group buy a 25.46 percent stake in YPF.
This week, banks including Credit Suisse (CSGN.VX), Citi (C.N), Itau (ITUB4.SA) and BNP Paribas (BNPP.PA) received Petersen’s YPF shares after the company failed to repay loans.
The loans were backed by YPF shares.
Argentina’s government said last year that Slim, the world’s richest man, would invest $1 billion in the South American country by the end of 2012, mainly in the telecommunications sector.
His America Movil (AMXL.MX) (AMX.N) is one of the world’s biggest cellphone providers, with 225 million wireless customers in countries stretching from the United States to Argentina.
YPF Chief Executive Officer Miguel Galuccio, a former executive at global oilfield services company Schlumberger (SLB.N), said YPF would be looking for deep-pocketed partners to help find its plans to reverse Argentina’s energy deficit.
Fitch Ratings cut Repsol’s credit rating last week by one notch to “BBB-minus,” citing the expectation that the company would receive no compensation in the near or medium term from Argentina for the expropriation of its majority stake in YPF.
(Writing by Hugh Bronstein; Editing by Simon Gardner and Lisa Von Ahn)
