Repsol YPF: No pressure from Argentina on sale of unit

Repsol YPF CEO Antonio Brufau on Tuesday denied media reports that Argentina's government was pressuring the Spanish oil company to sell a stake in its unit in the South American country to Argentine investors.

The Argentine government does not interfere in business decisions "and less so in a company like YPF," Brufau told reporters, adding that officials have never told the company to do anything.

"We are not negotiating with any Argentine group. The government has never tried to influence us in matters that are understood to be strictly private," the Spanish executive said.

The idea of selling a stake in YPF on the stock market "continues to be valid," but it must await a better time, Brufau said.

A week ago, the Buenos Aires daily El Cronista reported that Argentina's government wanted more domestic investment in YPF, a unit of Repsol YPF, with the goal of putting majority control of the oil company in Argentine hands.

The initial goal a few months ago was to bring private Argentine capital into the firm, but the possibility of state-owned oil company Energia Argentina, or Enarsa, taking a stake is now growing, the newspaper said.

Argentina's Petersen Group has owned a 15.46 percent stake in YPF, the South American country's largest oil firm, since February 2008 and has an option to acquire another 10 percent of the company.

"Another 30 percent Argentine (stake), but not private, instead state, could be added on," El Cronista said.

The Petersen Group, which also has interests in the construction and banking industries, is controlled by financier Enrique Eskenazi.

"Repsol wants to get out and the negotiations with Spain are far along," a source close to former President Nestor Kirchner told El Cronista.

Kirchner's wife, Cristina Fernandez, is Argentina's president.

Former President Carlos Menem began the process of privatizing YPF in 1993.

Madrid-based Repsol acquired YPF, a former state-owned company, for $15 billion in 1999. EFE

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