Jasper Vandenberghe

Repsol Meets YPF Displaying Competence in Cross-Border M&A Press Releases

Mergers and acquisitions (M&As) are often said to be risky business, especially in cross-border M&As, when an acquiring company faces a possible clash of both corporate and national cultures. This article focuses on the acquisition of the Argentine oil company Yacimientos Petrolíferos Fiscales (YPF) by the Spanish oil company Repsol in 1999. In particular, using a corpus of Repsol’s M&A related press releases, the author demonstrates how the acquiring company draws on forward-looking statements, promotional language, and repetition to discursively display its financial and moral competences to negotiate the acquisition. The analysis will also show how, at a certain moment, Repsol introduces an appeasing antitrust narrative to respond to the hurt (nationalistic) feelings in YPF’s Latin American environment.