Repsol YPF

Carmelo de las Morenas, Corporate Director Finance:

"Repsol and Goldman Sachs have been working together since the IPO of our company in 1989. We have accomplished a number of successful transactions together—and have achieved significant milestones. Goldman Sachs was the major financial institution in all five global equity offerings we made to complete the privatization of Repsol, and lead managed our first preferred stock issue—the largest corporate issuance ever in Spain. The firm has also assisted us in hedging our oil exposures. Our acquisition of YPF and the financings related to it have been the most important transactions we have undertaken since the privatization, and Goldman Sachs was centrally involved. This acquisition represented a critical part of our strategy to strengthen Repsol’s oil reserves and presence in Latin America. We took the unusual step—at least in the oil business—of making a cash offer to the government of Argentina for YPF. This presented us with substantial immediate financing needs that could be met only through a credit facility. The willingness of Goldman Sachs to play a leading role in this facility, committing a very large sum of its own capital so that we could proceed with the transaction, speaks to the trust in our relationship. We then quickly refinanced the loan in the debt capital markets and subsequently, and most importantly, we refinanced a substantial part of the debt in the equity markets, thereby restoring our gearing ratios to a more appropriate level."

• Goldman Sachs acted as financial advisor to Repsol in its two-step $16 billion acquisition of YPF.
• To date, this transaction represents the largest cash transaction in the energy industry, the largest cross-border acquisition by a Spanish company and the largest acquisition in Latin America.