By Ilan Brat
MADRID--Spain's Repsol S.A. said Friday it had agreed to sell
some of the bonds it received from Argentina in compensation for
the country's nationalization of the company's local unit.
In a filing with Spain's market supervisor, Repsol said J.P.
Morgan Securities PLC had agreed to buy the bonds for $2.8 billion
in a transaction expected to close by early next week.
In Spring 2012, Argentina seized and later nationalized Repsol's
local unit, YPF SA, which is the country's largest oil-and-gas
company in terms of production. Two years later, Argentina agreed
to compensate Repsol with about $5 billion worth of government
bonds. The country issued those bonds on Thursday, and Repsol said
it had sold just over half of them.
The sale will add to Repsol's growing cash pile, which company
executives on Thursday said they intend to use mostly for
acquisitions. Earlier this week, Repsol said it had s old nearly
all of its 12% remaining stake in YPF for $1.26 billion.
Write to Ilan Brat at ilan.brat@wsj.com
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