By Jonathan Stempel
Feb 6 (Reuters) - YPF SA, the Argentina energy company
seized by that country's government last year, was sued in the
United States on behalf of investors who allegedly were not
warned of the risks of nationalization before a March 2011
securities offering.
In a complaint filed Tuesday in the U.S. district court in
Manhattan, a Michigan pension fund said YPF and its underwriters
made false statements and omitted key facts from a prospectus
and other documents for the company's roughly $1.07 billion
offering of about 26.2 million American depositary shares.
Other defendants include YPF executives and directors;
Spain's Repsol SA, which once had a majority stake in YPF; and
the investment banks Credit Suisse Group AG, Goldman Sachs Group
Inc and Morgan Stanley. Argentina is not a defendant in the
case.
The Michigan fund, Monroe County Employees' Retirement
System, said YPF harmed shareholders by failing to disclose that
it had faced a heightened risk of nationalization.
It said this should have been disclosed because of YPF's
failure to "adequately" produce oil and gas in Argentina,
failure to reinvest enough profit into operations and breach of
contracts with various Argentine provinces.
Argentine President Cristina Fernandez last April 16
announced the seizure of a 51 percent YPF stake from Repsol,
saying that the oil and gas company did not invest enough and
let oil production and exploration decline.
The complaint said the price of YPF's ADSs closed two days
later at $13.12, or 68 percent below their $41 offering price.
It seeks class-action status on behalf of the ADS
purchasers, money damages and other remedies.
YPF and Repsol did not respond to requests for comment.
Credit Suisse, Goldman and Morgan Stanley representatives
declined to comment. Repsol last May separately sued Argentina
over the YPF seizure.
The case is Monroe County Employees' Retirement System v.
YPF SA et al, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New
York, No. 13-00842.
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