RE: Total voting rights RNS3 Aug 2025 10:56
WP - dead right the number of shares held in Treasury is way above the number needed to satisfy staff and director incentive schemes, and the number of shares has been increasing quite rapidly and dramatically.
Whilst some of the more vociferous parrot a litany of this being to further enrich the BoD it is obsessionally misleading and considerably disconnected from the reality.
Elliott Management had simply joined other significant stakeholders alongside BlackRock (NYSE:BLK 9% holding), Vanguard, and Norway’s sovereign wealth fund. According to Reuters Elliott Management had at this points already engaged with over 20 of BP’s largest active investors to build support for its agenda.
There is little a company can do when it is on the canvas, with a strategy dictated by the markets and activist intervention, and at least a quarter of its share capital is arguably outside its influence or control. But, it can build share numbers in Treasury, and without cancelling them, still control how they are used, either defensively or to be released to a company or institution that the BoD favour as a predator say.
When Elliott Management built a 5% stake in BP, the FT reported on the 10th February 2025:
“Radical options will now be on the table, and perhaps even likely,” said David Cumming, head of UK equities at Newton Investment Management, pointing to a potential break-up. “BP risks losing control of its agenda. Change is inevitable now,” he added.
In tandem with the build up of Treasury shares, they now have hardened and well respected "tough battler" as Chairman, and after being at the helm of BP for fully two-years in September, Auchinloss has suddenly become dynamic with a flurry of deals, almost developing the persona of a model Wael Sawan! You would struggle to write the scripts for this one!
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