BP shareholders challenge activist oil plan at shareholder meeting
Plus, Lucid deal soothes market concerns
In today’s edition:
— BP annual meeting a referendum on Elliott plan
— Lucid calms market fears with Nikola asset buy
— Trump funding cuts scramble sustainable farming projects
— Global fee on shipping emissions enacted
— Renewable energy surpasses 40% of global usage
A significant test of BP’s BP 0.00%↑ plan to turn its back on a decade of green ambitions and develop more oil and gas takes place later this week as several large shareholders will challenge the strategy and the activist behind it.
UK fund giant Legal and General (UK:LGEN), which owns just under 2% of BP’s shares, and several smaller stockholders will challenge at the company’s annual general meeting Thursday the strategy pushed by activist Elliott Management to boost BP shares, which are down as much as 35% in the past year.
The challenge will take place over the vote to re-elect outgoing chair Helge Lund. It will be watched widely in the asset management community as a signal for how strong the commitment to sustainable transition is among shareholders in the new world of “drill, baby, drill.”
BP’s shares have done little since it said earlier this year, under pressure from Elliott, that it would abandon some of its green goals and return its focus to oil and gas. Many shareholders, especially in Europe, are still very concerned about climate risk and how Big Oil will handle it.
For BP, which was at one time the leader among oil majors in chasing renewable energy plans, it is a stark comedown to now be the battlefield in which competing shareholder plans will meet.
We reckon the challengers will need to at least match Elliott’s 5% stake in votes to send a message and likely do twice as good as that to gain traction with BP management.
Other oil majors — and their shareholders — will be watching closely.
Don’t forget to contact me directly if you have suggestions or ideas dcallaway@callawayclimateinsights.com.
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