PE Interest, could be !30 Aug 2020 21:39
If a buyer wanted to think bigger, there is always BP. At 280p, the shares are back at levels last seen in the mid-1990s. The company keeps trying to reinvent itself as a green energy supplier and, while that is a noble enough aim, it might be better simply to run it for cash until the last petrol car and oil-fired boiler gets scrapped. With funds under so much pressure to divest from fossil-fuel businesses, it might well find it easier to operate as a private, rather than a public, company. There wouldn’t be so much scrutiny. At close on £60bn, it is a huge firm – but a consortium of private-equity funds could raise the money. With the economy in the doldrums right now, there will never be a better time to strike.