BUENOS AIRES, Dec. 18 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- Pampa Energia S.A. (NYSE: PAM; BASE: PAMP) ("Pampa" or the "Company") announces today that, in order to preserve its equity value and to ensure equal treatment amongst its shareholders, Pampa's Board of Directors has decided to implement, once again, a procedure that it believes is useful and efficient and that consist in declaring an early dividend against which it will compensate for the personal asset tax amounts that Pampa has to pay to the Argentine tax authority for the fiscal period of 2009, corresponding to its shareholders.

In accordance with the provisions of the Personal Asset Tax Law No. 23,966, Pampa is required to pay as substitute taxpayer the personal asset tax payable by all Company shareholders, as of the closing of December 31, 2009, who are subject to the tax.

Pampa has declared an early dividend of Ps. 18,314,331, or Ps. 0.012 per common share. As of the first working day of 2010, registered coupons will be issued representing this early dividend, with a payment date of March 26, 2010, date by which the definitive amount of the tax payment will be known. The coupons will have a trading restriction until the payment date to preserve the identity of the shareholders subject to the tax as well as the identity of the shareholders entitled to the dividend. Pampa's shares will thus trade ex coupon from the first working day of 2010.

On March 26, 2010, Pampa will pay the early dividend to the shareholders and will withhold the corresponding amount of personal asset tax from those shareholders who are subject to the tax. Argentine companies and holders of common shares from Switzerland, Chile and Spain are not subject to this tax (ADS holders are taxed in all cases).

    For further information, contact:
    Ricardo Torres - Chief Executive Officer
    Mariano Batistella - Investor Relations
    3302 Ortiz de Ocampo, Building #4
    (C1425DSR) Ciudad Autonoma de Buenos Aires, Argentina
    Phone: 5411 4809 9500
    http://www.pampaenergia.com/ir
    investor@pampaenergia.com

SOURCE Pampa Energia S.A.

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