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RNS Number : 4032E  Burford Capital Limited  22 October 2025

 

October 22, 2025

 

 

YPF Matter Update

 

In response to investor inquiries and in light of the forthcoming oral
argument of the YPF Main Appeal, Burford Capital Limited ("Burford") provides
this update on the status and expected timeline of the YPF matter in the US
and foreign courts. For the convenience of investors, this press release
synthesizes information from many different public sources; it does not
contain any information that is not already publicly available.

 

Appeal of the September 2023 Final Judgment

 

In September 2023, the US District Court for the Southern District of New York
(the "District Court") granted judgment in favor of plaintiffs Petersen and
Eton Park against the Republic of Argentina (the "Republic" or "Argentina") in
an amount of approximately $16 billion, including approximately $8 billion of
pre-judgment interest for the 11 years that had elapsed since Argentina's
failure to tender for YPF shares upon its renationalization (the "Judgment").
The District Court also dismissed plaintiffs' case against YPF as a defendant
separate from the Republic.

 

The Republic appealed the Judgment to the US Court of Appeals for the Second
Circuit (the "Second Circuit"), plaintiffs appealed the dismissal of YPF, and
YPF conditionally cross-appealed. We will call these three appeals
collectively the "Main Appeal."

 

The Main Appeal has been fully briefed and is scheduled for oral argument
before a three-judge panel of the Second Circuit at 11:00am New York City time
on Wednesday, October 29, 2025. The membership of the panel will be released
on October 23, 2025. The parties proposed and the Second Circuit agreed to
allot 30 minutes of argument time per side on the Republic's appeal and 10
minutes of argument time total per side on plaintiffs' appeal and YPF's
conditional cross-appeal.

 

The Second Circuit live streams audio of oral arguments and subsequently makes
the recordings available on its website. The live stream and recordings are
available at:  https://www.ca2.uscourts.gov/ (https://www.ca2.uscourts.gov/)
. Note that judges regularly ask searching questions and make comments at oral
argument to test the parties' positions, as opposed to revealing their own;
attempting to divine a judge's inclination with respect to a case from his or
her conduct at oral argument is an unreliable undertaking.

 

There appears to be some confusion among investors between this appeal and a
separate appeal of the District Court's Turnover Order, which we discuss
below. The US Government has not taken any position or made any filing with
respect to the Main Appeal. The only position taken by the United States as to
issues relating to the Main Appeal was its 2019 filing (during the first Trump
Administration) before the Supreme Court of the United States (the "Supreme
Court"), in which the Government took the position that this case was properly
before the US courts. Consistent with that position, the Supreme Court denied
review, making the Second Circuit's affirmance of the District Court's earlier
jurisdictional order final.

 

Next Steps in the Main Appeal

 

After oral argument, the Second Circuit panel will deliberate and write an
opinion in the case. There is no deadline or convention about the timing for
the release of that opinion and its accompanying judgment, which will simply
be released without prior notice on the public docket when they are complete.
It would be reasonable to expect the opinion and judgment to be released in a
period from several months to a year following oral argument, but individual
judges work at different speeds and many factors can affect the timing of
opinion release, meaning the opinion could be released earlier or later than
that range. The Second Circuit will not provide any updates or estimates about
the timing of an opinion's release.

 

Once the Second Circuit issues its opinion and judgment, a party dissatisfied
with the outcome can seek rehearing (by the same three-judge panel) or
rehearing en banc (by all 13 of the active judges on the Second Circuit).
Requests for rehearing must generally be made within 14 days of the issuance
of the judgment and are typically disposed of within one or two months.
Requests for rehearing en banc are disfavored and rarely granted.

 

Within 90 days of the release of the Second Circuit's opinion and judgment (or
within 90 days of the disposition of any rehearing application), any party can
petition the Supreme Court to review the Second Circuit's decision. There is
no appeal as of right to the Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court accepts only
a small number of cases each year, with a focus on cases that present an
important legal question; the rate at which petitions are granted varies from
year to year but is generally in the low single digits.

 

Once a petition has been filed, oppositions to the petition are due within 30
days. Once an opposition has been filed, the petition is circulated to the
Supreme Court for review no less than 14 days later (during which period a
reply, if appropriate, can be filed). The Supreme Court holds regular
conferences to consider petitions and decides most petitions quickly,
generally within about a month after the petition is distributed, other than
during its summer recess.

 

It is possible that instead of immediately denying or granting a petition, the
Supreme Court could call for the views of the US Solicitor General ("CVSG") as
to whether the petition should be granted, as occurred in the jurisdictional
appeal in this case in 2019. A CVSG will add some months to the decision
process, depending on the speed at which the Solicitor General prepares their
brief. For context, in the prior proceedings in this case, the Supreme Court
called for the views of the Solicitor General on January 7, 2019; the
Solicitor General filed his brief on May 21, 2019; and the Supreme Court
denied the petition on June 24, 2019.

 

If the petition is denied, there are no further opportunities to challenge the
Second Circuit's judgment in the US courts, and it becomes final.

 

If the petition is granted, the Supreme Court hears oral arguments from
October to April each year, and it decides cases argued in that period by the
end of June. If the petition is granted by mid-January, oral argument will
typically be scheduled during the current term; a grant after mid-January
would generally result in oral argument being scheduled in the following term.

 

Indicative Timetable

 

Because court procedure can be difficult to follow, we have prepared this
example of the application of the foregoing procedural discussion. This is an
entirely hypothetical application of the rules, and it does not suggest or
predict any particular timing for this case. This example assumes (i) that the
Second Circuit decision affirms the District Court and is released six months
after oral argument; (ii) that rehearing is sought and denied 45 days
thereafter; (iii) that the Supreme Court's review is sought; and (iv) that
there is no CVSG.

 

Based on those assumptions, the timing would unfold as follows:

 

 ·             Oral argument: October 29, 2025
 ·             Second Circuit releases opinion and judgment affirming the District Court six
               months later: April 29, 2026
 ·             Deadline to file for rehearing in the Second Circuit (14 days after judgment):
               May 13, 2026
 ·             Second Circuit denies rehearing 45 days later: June 29, 2026
 ·             Deadline to file for review at the Supreme Court (90 days after denial of
               rehearing): September 28, 2026
 ·             Petition eligible for circulation to Supreme Court conference after 30 days
               for responses and 14-day waiting period: November 12, 2026
 ·             Petition denied without further proceedings; end of case: December 4, 2026
               OR
 ·             Petition granted: oral argument; decision by June 30, 2027

 

It is important to bear in mind that Argentina routinely attempts to delay
court proceedings, and although those efforts are not always successful, it is
certainly possible that Argentina will be granted extensions of some of the
deadlines contained in the court rules.

 

Enforcement Activity in the District Court

 

Because Argentina did not comply with the District Court's conditions for a
stay of the Judgment pending appeal, the Judgment has been enforceable since
January 11, 2024. The District Court remains the US court overseeing discovery
in aid of enforcement, as well as other enforcement proceedings.

 

Since the Judgment became enforceable, the District Court has:

 

 ·             Received 31 motions concerning post-judgment discovery;
 ·             Held seven live hearings on discovery disputes; and
 ·             Issued nine written and oral discovery orders.

 

The District Court's orders have included:

 

 ·             On May 28, 2024, the District Court ordered the Republic to produce documents
               related to the possible alter-ego relationships between the Republic, on the
               one hand, and YPF and the Banco Central de la República Argentina ("BCRA"),
               on the other. On the same date, the District Court ordered YPF to produce
               documents related to its relationship with the Republic.
 ·             On January 14, 2025, the District Court granted plaintiffs' motion to compel
               the Republic's production of (i) SWIFT messages concerning the Republic's bank
               accounts outside Argentina; (ii) documents concerning the Republic's bank
               accounts in Argentina and the US; and (iii) documents concerning the
               Republic's gold reserves.
 ·             On July 29, 2025, the District Court ordered the Republic to produce internal
               communications between and among certain current and former government
               officials concerning YPF and BCRA. In its ruling, the District Court noted
               that, "given all of the Republic's delay tactics in these cases, the Court is
               unpersuaded that the Republic's discovery efforts to date are enough to tilt
               the factor of good faith in its favor." The District Court also ordered the
               Republic to collect and produce communications involving the same individuals
               on their personal email and messaging accounts (so-called "off-channel"
               communications), because "officials are conducting official business on their
               personal accounts." Finally, the District Court ordered alter-ego discovery as
               to the Republic's relationships with Banco de la Nacion Argentina, Aerolineas
               Argentinas, and Energía Argentina Sociedad Anónima.
 ·             On October 9, 2025, the District Court ordered the Republic: (i) to collect
               and produce off-channel communications by October 30, 2025; (ii) to produce
               its preservation notices on a without-prejudice basis and to send additional
               preservation notices to former officials; and (iii) to identify a Rule
               30(b)(6) witness within two weeks to testify on seven topics identified by
               plaintiffs.

 

In response to those rulings, Argentina has produced more than 12,000
documents and remains subject to further ongoing production obligations.

 

The plaintiffs have also issued more than 80 third-party subpoenas for
discovery in aid of enforcement.

 

Argentina has also sought to appeal the District Court's "off-channel"
document production order to the Second Circuit. That appeal has been docketed
in the Second Circuit; Argentina's opening brief is due on November 19, 2025.

 

The Turnover Order

 

One of the many enforcement approaches pursued by plaintiffs is to seek a
"turnover order" under New York law, requiring Argentina to turn over its YPF
shares to plaintiffs.

 

A turnover order is a longstanding, well-established tool of judgment
enforcement law that essentially requires a judgment debtor to turn over
property to the judgment creditor so that it can be enforced against to
satisfy the judgment. For example, a New York court has the authority to order
a judgment debtor to remove its property from a foreign jurisdiction and bring
it to New York so it can form part of the satisfaction of the judgment;
otherwise, judgment debtors could evade enforcement simply by stashing
property in other jurisdictions.

 

As the District Court held, the same principle applies equally to commercial
assets belonging to a foreign sovereign that is a judgment debtor and over
which the court has personal jurisdiction. Accordingly, the District Court
rejected the contrary view expressed by the US Government and required
Argentina to transfer its YPF shares to an account in the United States so the
ownership interests in those YPF shares can be turned over to plaintiffs (the
"Turnover Order").

 

The District Court then denied the Republic's motion for a stay of the
Turnover Order. The District Court noted that "the Republic has abused the
Court's accommodations and thus will not be given additional ones."

 

Argentina appealed the Turnover Order to the Second Circuit, which has stayed
its enforcement until the appeal can be heard. Briefing on the appeal is
scheduled to be completed by December 12, 2025, with oral argument to be
scheduled thereafter.

 

The appeal of the Turnover Order is separate and distinct from the Main
Appeal. The issues presented in the Turnover Appeal are quite narrow but have
attracted interest from a number of governments, including the United States,
who do not relish the idea of judgment creditors being able to require
turnover of government-owned commercial assets located in another country.
Resolution of the issues presented in the Turnover Order has nothing to do
with the Main Appeal, and the appeal of the Turnover Order will be resolved on
its merits in due course and in a separate proceeding from the Main Appeal.

 

International Recognition and Enforcement

 

Before a US judgment can be enforced in a foreign country, the courts of that
country must recognize the judgment. Each jurisdiction has its own body of law
governing judgment recognition; generally, the foreign court will review the
judgment for adequacy and compliance with the policy of the foreign state, but
will not conduct an in-depth re-trial of the underlying merits.

 

However, because the Judgment is against a sovereign, most foreign courts will
also permit the sovereign to raise objections to the foreign court's
jurisdiction, which the foreign court will evaluate applying its own
principles of sovereign immunity as opposed to adopting US principles.
Consistent with its overall tactical approach of delay and obfuscation,
Argentina thus regularly objects to the jurisdiction of foreign courts,
forcing adjudication of that issue, along with interposing other procedural
objections such as to proper service of process.

 

Recognition proceedings are presently pending in the United Kingdom, France,
Ireland, Canada, Australia, Luxembourg, Brazil and Cyprus; Argentina is
resisting each proceeding vigorously.

 

# # #

 

While Burford offers in this press release its best understanding of the facts
relating to the status and expected timeline of the YPF matter, the YPF matter
remains in active litigation and all litigation carries significant risks of
uncertainty and unpredictability until final resolution, including the risk of
total loss. Burford disclaims, to the fullest extent permitted by law, any
obligation to update or revise its views and interpretation as the litigation
proceeds. Moreover, Burford is and will continue to be constrained by legal
privilege and client confidences in terms of the scope of its ability to speak
publicly about the YPF matter.

 

Burford further cautions that there are meaningful remaining risks in the YPF
matter, including further proceedings before US and foreign courts, appeals,
enforcement and collateral litigation in other jurisdictions. Finally,
litigation matters often resolve for considerably less than the amount of any
judgment rendered by the courts and, to the extent that any settlement or
resolution discussions occur in the YPF matter, no public communication about
those discussions will be possible until their conclusion.

 

 

For further information, please contact:

 

 Burford Capital Limited
 For investor and analyst inquiries:
 Americas: Josh Wood, Head of Investor Relations - email                       +1 212 516 5824
 (mailto:jwood@burfordcapital.com)
 EMEA & Asia: Rob Bailhache, Head of EMEA & Asia Investor Relations -          +44 (0)20 3530 2023
 email (mailto:rbailhache@burfordcapital.com)
 For press inquiries:
 David Helfenbein, Senior Vice President, Public Relations - email             +1 646 504 7074
 (mailto:media@burfordcapital.com)

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 Giles Rolls
 Charlie Farquhar

 Jefferies International Limited - Joint Broker                                +44 (0)20 7029 8000
 Graham Davidson
 James Umbers

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 Toby Flaux
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About Burford Capital

 

Burford Capital is the leading global finance and asset management firm
focused on law. Its businesses include litigation finance
(https://www.burfordcapital.com/) and risk management, asset recovery and a
wide range of legal finance and advisory activities. Burford is publicly
traded on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE: BUR) and the London Stock
Exchange (LSE: BUR) and works with companies and law firms around the world
from its global network of offices.

 

For more information, please visit www.burfordcapital.com
(http://www.burfordcapital.com) .

 

 

This press release does not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of
an offer to buy any ordinary shares or other securities of Burford.

 

This press release does not constitute an offer of any Burford private fund.
Burford Capital Investment Management LLC, which acts as the fund manager of
all Burford private funds, is registered as an investment adviser with the
US Securities and Exchange Commission. The information provided in this press
release is for informational purposes only. Past performance is not indicative
of future results. The information contained in this press release is not, and
should not be construed as, an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer
to buy any securities (including interests or shares in any of Burford private
funds). Any such offer or solicitation may be made only by means of a final
confidential private placement memorandum and other offering documents.

 

Forward-looking statements

 

This press release contains "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of
Section 27A of the US Securities Act of 1933, as amended, and Section 21E of
the US Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as amended, that are intended to be
covered by the safe harbor provided for under these sections. In some cases,
words such as "aim", "anticipate", "believe", "continue", "could", "estimate",
"expect", "forecast", "guidance", "intend", "may", "plan", "potential",
"predict", "projected", "should" or "will", or the negative of such terms or
other comparable terminology, are intended to identify forward-looking
statements. Although Buford believes that the assumptions, expectations,
projections, intentions and beliefs about future results and events reflected
in forward-looking statements have a reasonable basis and are expressed in
good faith, forward-looking statements involve known and unknown risks,
uncertainties and other factors, which could cause Burford's actual results
and events to differ materially from (and be more negative than) future
results and events expressed, projected or implied by these forward-looking
statements. Factors that might cause future results and events to differ
include, among others, (i) uncertainty relating to adverse litigation outcomes
and the timing of resolution of litigation matters and (ii) those discussed in
the "Risk Factors" section of Burford's Annual Report on Form 10-K for the
year ended December 31, 2024 filed with the US Securities and Exchange
Commission on March 3, 2025. These factors should not be construed as
exhaustive and should be read in conjunction with the other cautionary
statements contained in the periodic and current reports that Burford files
with or furnishes to the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Many of these
factors are beyond Burford's ability to control or predict, and new factors
emerge from time to time. Furthermore, Burford cannot assess the impact of
each such factor on its business or the extent to which any factor or
combination of factors may cause actual results and events to be materially
different from those contained in any forward-looking statement. Given these
uncertainties, readers are cautioned not to place undue reliance on Burford's
forward-looking statements.

 

All subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements attributable to
Burford or to persons acting on its behalf are expressly qualified in their
entirety by these cautionary statements. The forward-looking statements speak
only as of the date of this press release and, except as required by
applicable law, Burford undertakes no obligation to update or revise any
forward-looking statements, whether as a result of new information, future
events or otherwise.

 

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