Member Info for Harmonica

Invrstrat,

They call it a war because it is exactly that! It is also an invasion. The two are not mutually exclusive.

Westowpods,

If the Board of Directors decided to cut the dividend or scrap it entirely, the share price would COLLAPSE immediately! How would that help those of us long-suffering investors who are out of the money? Sure, BP would retain more of its cash by not distributing as much of it profits, but many or most shareholders have bought into the company for the stream of dividends.

Invstrat,

The debt pile is anything but "crippling"! If it were so, the buybacks or dividends or capital spending would surely have been curtailed; I see no sign of those being affected. Paying back the lenders earlier than legally necessary WOULD harm liquidity and so could harm levels of dividends, buybacksmor capex. Paying back the lenders would haemorrhage cash.

My gut feeling is that as much as I want a takeover bid to be made to rampnup the share price, ot will not b3 coming any time soon. That stated, should a bid be made, would it then cause one or two more to contest it?

Brewing?

Thanks for the reminder to get the kettle on for tea!

Just had a quick look and Shell is down even more than BP, so it is not all due to BP being a "dog" or ex div.

Bearded Dragon,

Yes, in theory when the shares go ex-dividend, the shares price falls by the exact amount of the expected dividend. This makes logical sense as the XD shares are not worth as much to a buyer when they turn XD as they were the day before. When they stop being XD, the cum dividend shares will grow by the vslue of the next dividend. So, it is just a matter of timing.

It is also fundamentally about why people invest. Those who want capital growth only find dividends to be a pain, as they have to be reinvested which costs time, money and some effort. Then you have those who prefer good dividend yielded to take the dividend in order to boost their income, perhaps for everyday things.

11p up on the day is a rocket upwards in the right direction, maybe not the sky rocket that you wanted, but still pretty good. As for the future, who really knows?

2.4km down!

Tenth discovery in 2025 alone!

Woo-hoo!

Only way is up!

BP doing better than Shell today.

How come?

Purchase them? He will probably be gifted them!

Invstrat,

Trump's mother waa Scottish according to some an illegal immigrant into the USA!

Armani,

I guess it much depends on what sort of Chairman he ends up being. He could take up the reins and eun the ship as he wants or he could sit back, ler the CEO run it operationally and concentrate only on strategic issues, such as which markets to be in, dividends/buybacks policy etc.

Two Masters degree in practically the same subject!

As Sulu said on 'Star Trek The Wrath of Khan': 'Manifolds engaged, Captain."

Unless an agreement can be reached with Argentina, exploration and extraction will be difficult. How would any oil be transported to refineries?

Invstrat,

They are on the shares register as fully paid up issued shares, or they would not have been trading as such on the FTSE-100.

If they are being saved up to cover bonuses, then I am delighted! It is good that the Board is planning ahead and not forced to buy shares in the market at a potentially disadvantageous price. If they are then not all needed, they can be cancelled.

I suggest that BPplc has bigger things to worry about than uncancelled shares in Treasury. Perhaps you might consider not sweating the small stuff?

Invstrat,

Not sure how cancelling the shares is an advantage for shareholders. Care to elaborate why you think it is

Once purchased by BP, those shares sitting in Treasury have no voting power and do not receive any dividends.

As for whether they are still on the balance sheet is a mere accounting issue and has no practical relevance to shareholders.

Invrstrat,

That is the point! Cash was used in the buyback, affecting the availability of working capital through cash depletion. Whether they are cancelled or not has NO effect on cash or working capital.

Is your gripe that buybacks have occurred?

Somebody made a good point that BP is keeping the in reserve to use as collateral for a purchase?

Invrstrat,

Perhaps you worded your message ambiguously, but HAVING shares in Treasury does NOT in itself cost any working capital, as compared to cancelling them. Sure, buybacks cost cash. However, the shares once bought, whether cancelled or not (in treasury), working capital is unaffected.

The more that I think about it, they must be held for options purchases.

Perhaps your gripe is the buyback project, as whether the shares are then cancelled or not is not a great issue.