BP the shares jump after the Elliott coverage activist fund takes stake

Unlock the editor’s summary for free

Roula Khalaf, editor of the FT, selects her favorite stories in this weekly newsletter.

BP shares increased almost 7 percent in Monday’s first operations such as the acquisition of the acquired activist coverage fund Elliott Management of a participation increased the hope of a shake in the large amount of oil.

The size of Elliott’s participation has not been revealed, but its participation in BP, which was first reported on Saturday, will feed the conversation of a review of the group’s strategy and a shake of its board.

“We believe that any activist would ask for a change in the president at least,” said Biraj Borkhataria, RBC Markets analyst.

The actions increased to 462p, after closing 433.25p on Friday.

Before the increase on Monday, BP had suffered a decrease in the price of almost 10 percent shares in the last year, while investors had criticized their low performance and uncertainty about their strategy.

The group, one of the 10 main companies in the London stock market for market capitalization, has been chaired by Helge Lund since 2019. He said last month that a day of investors scheduled for this week would be delayed until February 26 so that Executive President Murray Auchincloss could recover from a “planned medical procedure.”

Auchincloss is expected to use the event to try to convince investors to have the right strategy for the company.

Jefferies analysts said they believed that Elliott’s participation in the company could cause changes in the Board and a thinning of their business “with an approach in leaving low carbon assets and certain retail regions.”

The coverage fund could also boost so that capital disbursement focuses on ascending projects, which would maximize cash flow generation, they added.

Borkhataria suggested that a sum assessment of the BP business would be much higher than the current business value of the group of approximately $ 130 billion, including debt.