Editing YPF (section)

===Decline and privatization===
[[File:HFB-320 LQ-JRH YPF AEP 26.04.72 edited-3.jpg|thumb|YPF business jet, Aeroparque Newbery, 1972]]
Perón's return to Argentina and to the presidency in 1973 was followed by the addition of nearly 20,000 employees (YPF employed 53,000 by 1976).<ref name=phillip/> It also coincided with the [[1973 oil shock]], however, and the US$470 million in added oil import costs combined with larger payrolls to erase profits in 1974, while production declined slightly.<ref name=lewis/> The [[National Reorganization Process|dictatorship]] installed in a [[March 1976 coup]] initially presided over a revitalization and streamlining of YPF. Output increased by 20% and its finances initially improved following a wave of layoffs that returned employment levels to around 35,000 by 1979.<ref name=phillip/>

The military government was openly hostile to YPF's paramount position in the oil industry, however.  The company lost money every year after 1975 and by 1981 was US$4.1 billion in debt.  YPF losses resulted, at least in large part, from policy decisions beyond its control. Government policy after 1976 kept oil prices well below inflation, with the consequence that costs increased faster than income.  YPF also bore an extremely heavy tax burden, as 68.4% of its revenues were paid as tax to the national and provincial governments, as well as a long list of state agencies that included the National Energy Fund, the National Highway Council, and the Provincial Road Fund.  Another serious drain resulted from the failure of other state enterprises such as [[Ferrocarriles Argentinos|Argentine Railways]] and [[Aerolíneas Argentinas|the national airline]] to pay YPF for their fuel in full and on time.  These intergovernmental accounts represented 20% of YPF's sales and were as much as ten years in arrears.  The tax policy of the military government followed the same path as its civilian predecessors, a path that regarded YPF as a convenient source of funds to ease the country's chronic and serious fiscal deficit position.<ref>{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YlCKjxgA1GwC|title=The Oil Business in Latin America|editor=John Wirth |publisher=University of Nebraska Press|date=1985|isbn=9781587981036}}</ref>

The death in a helicopter crash of the firm's director, Raúl Ondarts, and the appointment of General [[Guillermo Suárez Mason]] in 1981 was followed by a period of severe mismanagement, moreover. Powerful as head of the First Army Corps (which committed many of the "[[Dirty War]]" atrocities), Suárez Mason installed many of his hard-line Army Intelligence colleagues in managerial posts at YPF.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.csmonitor.com/1991/0111/ehrm.html|title=Carlos Menem blinks|work=The Christian Science Monitor|author= Eric Ehrmann|date=11 January 1991|access-date=20 April 2012}}</ref> They in turn diverted large quantities of fuel into the director's newly established company ''Sol Petróleo'', a [[dummy corporation]] used by Suárez Mason and his appointees for [[embezzlement]] as well as to divert funds to the [[Contras]]<ref>{{cite book|title=Truth and Partial Justice in Argentina|author=Méndez, Juan|publisher=Human Rights Watch|isbn=0938579347|year=1991}}</ref> and the fascist organization [[Propaganda Due|P2]] (to which the director belonged).<ref name=clarin>{{cite web|url=http://edant.clarin.com/diario/2005/06/22/elpais/p-00801.htm|title=Murió el represor Suárez Mason|first=María |last=Seoane|author-link=María Seoane|date=22 June 2005|access-date=20 April 2012|work=Clarín|language=es}}</ref>

Suárez Mason had YPF borrow heavily not only to cover such [[asset stripping]] but also at the behest of Economy Minister [[José Alfredo Martínez de Hoz]], whose bid for [[currency strength]] and policy of [[Big Bang (financial markets)|financial deregulation]] required a sharp rise in [[foreign debt]] to maintain.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://edant.clarin.com/suplementos/especiales/2006/03/24/l-01164108.htm|title=El derrumbe de salarios y la plata dulce|work=Clarín|author=Ismael Bermúdez|access-date=20 April 2012|language=es|date=24 March 2006|archive-date=3 November 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111103204724/http://edant.clarin.com/suplementos/especiales/2006/03/24/l-01164108.htm|url-status=dead}}</ref> YPF debts thus rose 142-fold during Suárez Mason's tenure,<ref name=clarin/> at the end of which in 1983 the company recorded a US$6 billion loss (the largest in the world at the time).<ref>{{cite book|title=''The Guinness Book of World Records''|publisher=Random House|year=1986|isbn=0806902728}}</ref>

YPF nonetheless remained the 365th largest firm in the world,<ref name=cre>{{cite web|url=http://www.creepace.com.ar/notas/20030123-sec_pet.htm|title=A 10 años de la privatización de YPF|publisher=Centro Regional de Estudios Económicos de la Patagonia Central|language=es|author1=César V. Herrera  |author2=Marcelo García |name-list-style=amp |date=23 January 2003|access-date=20 April 2012}}</ref> with sales of over US$4 billion in 1992.<ref name=tribune>{{cite news|url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1993/06/29/oil-privatization-brings-3-billion-in-argentina/|title=Oil Privatization Brings $3 Billion in Argentina|newspaper=Chicago Tribune|date=29 June 1993}}</ref> Argentine President [[Carlos Menem]] initiated the [[privatization]] of YPF through an IPO on the New York and other stock exchanges on 28 June 1993, at a value of US$3 billion for stock equal to a 45% share in the company.  During the 18 months prior to the IPO, YPF underwent a massive restructuring process led by its new CEO José Estenssoro, who had been appointed by President Menem.  The staff of YPF was reduced from 52,000 to 10,600 through layoffs agreed with unions and outsourcing of services to companies established by former YPF employees during the restructuring process.  The financial bottom line for the company was increased from a loss about $1 billion in 1991 (although the accounting system at the time could not accurately compute actual profit) to a profit of $1 billion in 1993, and the underlying value of YPF was increased from about US$2 billion to the US$9 billion after privatization.<ref name=tribune/><ref>{{cite book|author1=Michael Y. Yoshino  |author2=Carin-Isabel Knoop |name-list-style=amp |title=Argentina's YPF Sociedad Anónima|date=1995|publisher=Harvard Business School}}</ref>

Estenssoro stayed on as CEO, and further streamlined the company while expanding its reach outside Argentina, acquiring Maxus Energy Corporation of [[Dallas]] for US$740 million in 1995. Estenssoro died in a plane crash in [[Ecuador]], where Maxus maintained wells, in May of that year.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/1995/05/05/obituaries/jose-estenssoro-61-who-led-oil-privatization-in-argentina.html |author=Calvin Sims |title=José Estenssoro, 61, Who Led Oil Privatization in Argentina|work=The New York Times|date=5 May 1995|access-date=20 April 2012}}</ref><ref>[http://www.baaa-acro.com/1995/archives/crash-of-a-gulfstream-gii-in-quito-7-killed/ "Crash of a Gulfstream G-II In Quito: 7 Killed"] Bureau of Aircraft Accidents Archives</ref><ref>[http://www.upi.com/Archives/1995/05/04/Argentine-oil-chief-dies-in-plane-crash/5595799560000/ "Argentine Oil Chief Dies in Plane Crash"] UPI</ref> His policy of high exploration investments was maintained by his successor, Nells León, and reserves expanded by 50% while production rose from 109 million barrels in 1993 to a record 190 million in 1998;<ref name=mepriv>{{cite web|url=http://mepriv.mecon.gov.ar/YPF/Repsol/produccion.htm|title=Producción y reservas de petróleo y gas|publisher=Economy Ministry|language=es|access-date=20 April 2012}}</ref> of the latter total, 32 million were produced by Maxus operations in Ecuador and elsewhere.<ref>{{cite book|title=La Recolonización: Repsol en América Latina|author=Gavaldà, Marc|publisher=Icaria Editorial|isbn=9788474266214|year=2006|language=es|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=axjls39KZhgC}}</ref>