YPF launched the sale of Metrogas in search of more than US$ 500 million for Vaca Muerta

At the end of last year, YPF hired Citi counter to lead the process and in mid-January he authorized it to launch the formal call for interested parties, according to the portal. EconoJournal.

The objective is to attract international investors, in a context of Argentinization of business that crosses all industries and is especially noticeable in the oil sector, after the departure or shrinking of multinationals such as the American ExxonMobil, the Malaysian Petronas, the French TotalEnergies, recently the Norwegian Equinor and the doubts about the Anglo-Dutch Shell.

To provide value to the company, YPF hopes that the Government, through the National Gas Regulatory Entity (Enargas), completes the extension of your concession public service for 20 years -until 2047-.

Metrogas is the largest distributor in the country in terms of number of clients, since serves 2.4 million users in the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area (AMBA), 20% of the country’s total.

Its net worth as of September 30, 2025 was $875 billion and in the first nine months of last year it had achieved gas sales of $900 billion. Its EBITDA (gross profit before taxes, interest and amortization) is around $150 to $200 million.

Metrogas, like the rest of the public electricity and gas service companies, has an essential asset which is the Five-Year Tariff Review (RQT), a contract by which The national State undertakes to keep rates constant in real terms in exchange for investments.

In addition, until November 2027 the firm will obtain an increase of 15% above inflationdistributed in monthly installments.

The recent history of Argentina shows that the RQT can be breached, as happened with the tariff reviews of 1999-2004 and those of 2017-2022. Of the 32 years that passed after the privatizations, only in 10 years were the contracts fully fulfilled. It is part of the country risk and the Argentine cost.

Beyond that, the normalization of the concession contract and the extension of the license are two steps that YPF, owner of 70% of Metrogas, was waiting for to put its stake up for sale. The extension will be made official shortly. The law that regulates gas (24,076 of 1992) prohibits a gas producer from controlling the majority of a distributor.

The other minority shareholder of the distributor is José Luis Manzanothrough Integra Capital, with 9%, while Anses and stock investors hold the rest.