BP - BP p.l.c.
| Previous close | 23.41 |
| Open | 23.67 |
| Bid | 23.59 x 1400 |
| Ask | 23.69 x 2200 |
| Day's range | 23.44 - 23.93 |
| 52-week range | 15.51 - 41.47 |
| Volume | 7,228,378 |
| Avg. volume | 12,450,169 |
| Market cap | 79.885B |
| Beta (5Y monthly) | 0.56 |
| PE ratio (TTM) | N/A |
| EPS (TTM) | -0.97 |
| Earnings date | N/A |
| Forward dividend & yield | 2.52 (10.76%) |
| Ex-dividend date | 08 May 2020 |
| 1y target est | 30.49 |
- Bloomberg
As Big Oil Stumbles, Total Manages to Stay on Its Feet
(Bloomberg) -- Europe’s oil giants came into 2020 promising shareholders they can “do it all” -- maintain generous dividends, keep the crude flowing and make a historic shift toward clean energy. Only one of them may succeed.Since the coronavirus pandemic wiped out oil demand, Royal Dutch Shell Plc shocked investors with its first dividend cut since the Second World War, while BP Plc announced 10,000 jobs cuts and the sale of its chemical business as debt soared. But Total SA has so far weathered the storm, and investors are confident Chief Executive Officer Patrick Pouyanne can avoid his rivals’ stumbles.They see the French company as an early adopter of clean energy, with multi-billion investments in solar, wind and batteries, but also a rare haven in an industry shattered by the slump in energy prices.“Total has probably the best balance sheet among the majors,” having spent its money wisely in recent years, said Laurent van Tuyckom, who manages high-dividend funds at Degroof Petercam Asset Management in Brussels. “We’re much more cautious on other heavyweights of the industry.”Total has taken steps to mitigate the effect of the downturn. It has cut costs, suspended a plan to increase its dividend by 5% to 6% per year, halted share buybacks, and given investors the option of taking the final quarterly dividend for 2019 in shares instead of cash. It also announced a plan to eliminate 1,000 jobs in France at a petrochemicals unit, and potentially more abroad.Those measures will save $7.5 billion this year, meaning the company can fund its major oil and gas projects, invest as much as $2 billion in low-carbon assets and keep paying its dividend even if oil remains at about $40 a barrel, Pouyanne has said. The payout will rise again when the economic situation has normalized, maybe from 2022, he said.Asset managers are confident Total can maintain its payout until the markets starts to recover. Most investors seem to agree, as the French company has the lowest dividend yield among its European peers, even after Shell’s two-thirds cut.Its peers are not so well placed. Eni Spa’s dividend is “more challenged than most peers at lower commodity prices,” said Biraj Borkhataria, an analyst at RBC Europe Ltd. JPMorgan said a cut to BP’s dividend is “well flagged”, particularly after Shell’s cut in April.Total can defend its dividend “even in an adverse scenario which would see the barrel staying around $40” said Regis Longlade, deputy chief executive officer of AG2R La Mondiale Gestion d’Actifs, which owns shares in Total and Shell. “It’s one of the most robust investment case in the industry. Total has one of the lowest breakevens in the market.”Total now needs less than $25 a barrel to cover its annual expenditure excluding the dividend payment, a drop of more than 75% compared to what it needed back in 2014. It is benefiting from spending cuts initiated since the previous down turn five years ago and investments in low-cost barrels. Its upstream operating expenditure has almost halved since 2014 to $5.4 a barrel, the lowest among the five supermajors, according to Total. Its gearing -- a measure of indebtedness -- has also halved.Writedown WoesYet Total may not be immune to another feature of the current downturn -- multibillion dollar asset writedowns. Last month, BP announced as much as $17.5 billion of charges, its biggest in a decade, saying it expects the pandemic to accelerate the pace of transition to a lower carbon economy. Shell soon followed, warning that it expected a writedown of $15 billion to $22 billion.“BP has made a major step forwards with its writedowns and the issue of financial risks linked with fossil energies,” said Aurelie Baudhuin, head of socially responsible investing research at Meeschaert Asset Management. “That will inevitably spill over to the entire industry one way or another.”Total should follow that example, by giving more details on its roadmap to net zero emissions, and broaden its ambitions to incorporate a worldwide scope, said Baudhuin. Bruce Duguid, head of stewardship, EOS at Federated Hermes also wants Total to follow BP, which “recently changed their management and accounting assumptions to be consistent with a Paris-aligned outlook on demand.”More Work NeededPouyanne is keeping pace with his rivals in the transition to clean energy. While Shell has set the ambition of becoming the world’s biggest power producer in 2030, Total has spent billions on electricity assets and plans to have more than 25 gigawatts of gross renewable generation capacity by 2025. It is targeting carbon neutrality for all its production and energy products used by its customers in Europe by 2050 or earlier.Total bought French battery maker Saft Groupe SA in a 950 million-euro ($1 billion) deal in 2016. It further diversified into power in 2018 with the 2-billion euro acquisition of Direct Energie SA, France’s third-largest utility. It recently announced plans to build batteries for electric vehicles in France and China, expanded in the power sector in Spain, India and Qatar, and announced its first deal in offshore wind in the North Sea.All these factors make Total one of the most attractive investments in the industry, especially since it trades at a discount to its peers, said AG2R’s Longlade.“Its low breakeven, its gearing among the lowest in the industry, and the ability of its management to adjust quickly to the crisis would justify that Total trades at a premium,” he said.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
- Reuters
Exclusive: CIMB alleges 'suspicious' Hontop Energy oil deals with BP - affidavit
Singapore's High Court has appointed an independent supervisor to oversee the restructuring of trader Hontop Energy. The move came after Malaysian lender CIMB, its biggest creditor, raised concerns about what it described as 'suspicious' deals involving oil major BP <BP.L>, according to an affidavit filed with the court this week and reviewed by Reuters. Hontop, the trading arm of Chinese independent refiner China Wanda Holding Group Co Ltd, is one of four commodity trading firms in Singapore which ran into financial trouble as the oil price crashed.
- Reuters
Exclusive: CIMB alleges 'suspicious' Hontop Energy oil deals with BP
Singapore's High Court has appointed an independent supervisor to oversee the restructuring of trader Hontop Energy. The move came after Malaysian lender CIMB, its biggest creditor, raised concerns about what it described as 'suspicious' deals involving oil major BP <BP.L>, according to an affidavit filed with the court this week and reviewed by Reuters. Hontop, the trading arm of Chinese independent refiner China Wanda Holding Group Co Ltd, is one of four commodity trading firms in Singapore which ran into financial trouble as the oil price crashed.
- Investing.com
Crude Oil Lower; OPEC Disputes and Virus Cases Weigh
Oil markets slipped Friday as the resurgence of Covid-19 cases, particularly in the U.S., the largest consumer in the world, threatened the recovery of crude demand. At 7:30 AM ET (1130 GMT), U.S. crude futures traded 1.2% lower at $40.15 a barrel. The U.S. has recorded around a quarter of the almost 11 million cases worldwide, according to data from Johns Hopkins University, and the number is growing rapidly.
- Reuters
BP completes sale of Alaskan oil and gas producing properties to Hilcorp Energy
BP Plc <BP.L> said it completed the sale of its Prudhoe Bay oil and gas producing properties to closely-held Hilcorp Energy, ending 60 years as a top Alaskan oil producer. BP and other oil majors have reduced their production roles in the northernmost U.S. state as output slid and lower-cost fields emerged elsewhere. Hilcorp, known for buying up oil castoffs, acquired half of another BP Alaska project in 2014.
- Zacks
BP (BP) Stock Sinks As Market Gains: What You Should Know
BP (BP) closed the most recent trading day at $23.32, moving -0.68% from the previous trading session.
- Yahoo Finance
'The days of $100 oil are over': Bubba Trading founder
“The days of $100 oil are over,” says Bubba Trading founder and CEO Todd Horwitz.
- Bloomberg
Shell and BP's Debt Problems Are Getting Worse
(Bloomberg Opinion) -- The pandemic has now forced both of the U.K.’s oil majors to slash the value of their assets by billions of dollars. This is more than just an accounting issue for BP Plc and Royal Dutch Shell Plc. In the real world, it makes it even harder for them to meet targets for cutting leverage — targets they were already straining to hit.Shell said on Tuesday it would take a $15 billion to $22 billion post-tax impairment charge after cutting its long-term view on oil and gas prices. BP warned earlier in June of potentially $18 billion in impairments.Whereas most non-financial companies assess leverage by comparing some measure of cash flow to net debt, BP and Shell do not. They use “gearing,” or net debt as a percentage of both net debt and equity. That equity number is the wildcard. If it suddenly falls, as happens with impairments, then gearing goes up. Shell says the impact of its impairments will push up gearing by three percentage points.Both BP and Shell are now even further away from their gearing goals. Shell aspires to about 25%. The measure rose steadily throughout 2019, and was 29% in the first quarter of 2020. BP’s gearing was last at 36%, against a target range of 20%-30%.It has always been easy to explain away or divert attention from repeated misses on these targets, as though they don’t really matter. Forthcoming disposal proceeds would bring gearing down, the companies would say. Shell could point to juicy cash returns to shareholders in dividends and buybacks. It’s hard to pay off debt when you’re doing that. On analyst calls, gearing is played down as a “noisy” number and just one among many ways of measuring leverage.But today, debt reduction is becoming important. The oil price will probably be volatile for some time, so balance sheets need a cushion. Investors have historically afforded a loftier valuation to the less highly geared U.S. oil majors. If gearing targets haven’t worked in the past, are there better ways of holding BP and Shell to account for attacking their debt piles?Shell has reduced its dividend, and analysts expect BP to follow. That will help. But it’s worth considering scrapping the existing gearing targets and starting over. One option would be to fall in with the rest of the corporate pack and measure leverage using cash flow metrics. That would be more helpful in assessing the ability to service debt. It’s probably also more in tune with how these companies manage their finances day to day.If gearing really is the best measure of leverage, then BP and Shell are going to need to set out a credible plan for getting it back down over time. Otherwise pick another type of target — one that can be met.This column does not necessarily reflect the opinion of the editorial board or Bloomberg LP and its owners.Chris Hughes is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering deals. He previously worked for Reuters Breakingviews, as well as the Financial Times and the Independent newspaper.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.com/opinionSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
- Zacks
BP to Divest Petrochemicals Business to INEOS for $5 Billion
Through the latest asset sale, BP reaches the $15-billion divestment target a year ahead of schedule.
- Bloomberg
Shell Warns of Record Writedown as Virus Curbs Oil Demand
(Bloomberg) -- Royal Dutch Shell Plc said it will write down between $15 billion and $22 billion in the second quarter, as the company gave investors a wider glimpse of just how severely the coronavirus crisis has hit Big Oil.The impairment is the firm’s largest since Royal Dutch Petroleum Co. and Shell Transport & Trading Co. merged in 2005, and shows how the pandemic has left no part of the energy giant’s sprawling business unscathed. Shell lost money from pumping oil, fuel sales fell and shipments of everything from liquefied natural gas to petrochemicals suffered.The lockdown-induced slump has permeated through the entire industry, which is reassessing both the value of its assets and longer-term business models. Shell’s large LNG business, which is central to its vision of the future of energy, is seen taking the biggest hit.“We see material downside for second-quarter earnings,” Banco Santander SA analyst Jason Kenney said. Despite a possible weaker performance relative to its peers, the Spanish bank still sees potential upside in the stock, as the bad news was largely anticipated.The drop in demand comes as little surprise. Oil majors’ earnings took a beating in the first quarter, and the companies warned that things would only get worse as the full impact of the pandemic started to be felt in March. Despite a recent rebound in consumption in some of the worst-hit countries, resurgent waves of the virus show the recovery remains fragile.Oil-product sales volumes will be 3.5 million to 4.5 million barrels a day in the second quarter, down from 6.6 million a year earlier, driven by a “significant drop” in demand because of the pandemic, Shell said Tuesday in a statement ahead of quarterly results on July 30.Shell also flagged that its upstream unit, traditionally the company’s core business, will suffer a loss in the second quarter. The division, which is responsible for pumping oil across the world, will take an impairment charge of $4 billion to $6 billion, mostly from North American shale and Brazilian assets.Shell said it has revised its mid- and long-term pricing and refining margin outlook, and expects gearing -- a measure of debt -- to increase by as much as 3% due to the impairment charges.The company’s B shares fell as much as 2.6% and traded down 2.3% at 1,241.40 pence as of 1:26 p.m. in London.Drastic ChangesThe coronavirus has exposed the vulnerability of some of the world’s biggest oil and gas companies, but also given them an opportunity to make investors swallow some unpleasant remedies. Since the pandemic started, Shell and BP Plc have made drastic changes to their businesses, from multibillion-dollar writedowns to big cuts to dividends and jobs.They explained these moves as responses to the dual threats of the lockdown-induced oil slump and the growing pressure to cut carbon emissions. BP has said oil and gas prices will be lower than expected in the coming decades as the virus hurts long-term demand and accelerates the shift to cleaner energy.Second-quarter performance at Shell’s in-house trading unit, which can be a boon when other parts of the business are hurting, is expected to be “below average,” the company said. Still, trading and optimization will offset “significantly lower” refining margins.When Shell reports its results next month, the market will be focused on the company’s outlook and any green-shoot developments, said Jefferies analyst Jason Gammel. The market is getting closer to balancing, he said, and while this isn’t necessarily bullish, “it’s better…it’s bad but it’s better.”The company indicated there was more pain to come from LNG sales, which have a price lag of three to six months compared with oil. The impact of crude prices on LNG margins became “more prominent” from June.Longer term, Shell is optimistic about the LNG market, with Chief Executive Officer Ben van Beurden telling Bloomberg in an interview in May that he expects the market to recover to pre-virus levels.In April, Van Beurden cut the company’s dividend for the first time since the Second World War. Last month, the Anglo-Dutch major said it would be well-placed to boost shareholder payouts again once the oil market recovers.“This morning’s announcement will cement the view that dividends will take longer to get back to their pre-crisis level than originally thought,” said The Share Centre analyst Helal Miah.(Adds analyst comment in 13th paragraph)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
- Yahoo Finance UK
Oil price crash to cost Shell up to $22bn
The oil giant said it was downgrading its long-term oil price forecasts and writing-off up to $22bn on the value of its assets as a result.
- Reuters
Alaskan officials approve BP's sale of oil leases to Hilcorp
Alaskan officials on Monday approved BP Plc's <BP.L> sale of its oil and gas leases in the state to closely held Hilcorp Energy Co. as part of a previously announced $5.6 billion deal. BP last year agreed to sell its Alaskan properties, including interests in the Prudhoe Bay oilfield and its nearly 50% stake in the 800-mile (1,300-km) Trans Alaska Pipeline, to Texas-based Hilcorp. Officials in Alaska's departments of Natural Resources and Environmental Conservation ruled the sale of BP's 176 North Slope leases is good for the state.
- Bloomberg
U.K.’s Richest Man Jim Ratcliffe Revisits Roots of Fortune With BP Deal
(Bloomberg) -- More than 15 years after Jim Ratcliffe bought part of BP Plc’s petrochemical business to help establish Ineos Group Holdings SA, the now billionaire is buying the rest.Ineos agreed to pay $5 billion for about 15 plants on Monday, reuniting them with ex-BP assets Ratcliffe acquired for about $9 billion in 2005. The U.K. chemicals giant will now look to improve and expand the sites, according to Ineos executive Tom Crotty, having long considered them a natural fit for the company.“The question back then was why we weren’t buying these bits, but they weren’t for sale,” Crotty said. “It’s always been a piece of the chemistry set that was missing for us.”Ineos and BP chemical plants operate side by side in some locations, including Hull in England and the Belgian city of Geel. The acquisition, which includes aromatic petrochemicals and acetyls, will expand Ineos into polyester and increase exposure to Asian markets including China, South Korea and Indonesia.For BP, the deal marks a significant step toward strengthening its balance sheet and accelerating a move away from oil and gas, which have been hammered by the coronavirus pandemic. Chief Executive Officer Bernard Looney has also pledged to eliminate carbon emissions by 2050.Richest PersonRatcliffe made his $19.4 billion fortune piecing together unloved assets from oil majors into a more cohesive group that now ranks among the world’s top chemical makers. The 67-year-old still owns a majority stake and remains the driving force behind Ineos. He is ranked as the U.K.’s richest person, according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index.A chemical engineer turned financier, Ratcliffe started out in 1998 by leasing a former BP chemicals site in Antwerp, Belgium. Over the course of the next two decades, he used it as a base to make multiple acquisitions from rivals --- including that landmark 2005 deal with BP -- earning a reputation for being a tough negotiator along the way.Alongside chemicals, Ratcliffe has turned his mind toward other areas, including buying a Swiss football team and a motorcycle jacket company, while sponsoring cycling and sailing teams. A driving enthusiast, he’s also bankrolling the development of an off-road vehicle.Ratcliffe orchestrated the deal with BP without financial advisers and negotiations were largely conducted remotely given Covid-19 restrictions. The deal will be financed using debt linked to Ineos’ Styrolution and Innovene arms, Crotty said, and should be completed by the end of the year. Slaughter and May provided legal advice.For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
- Reuters
BP sells petchems arm for $5 billion in energy transition revamp
BP has agreed to sell its global petrochemicals business to billionaire Jim Ratcliffe's Ineos for $5 billion, pulling out of a sector widely seen as a key driver of oil demand growth in the coming decades. The surprise move means BP has hit its $15 billion asset sales target a year ahead of schedule as CEO Bernard Looney prepares the company for a shift to low-carbon energy. Looney acknowledged that the sale of the business, which employs 1,700 people and produced 9.7 million tonnes of petrochemicals last year, "will come as a surprise".
- Bloomberg
BP to Sell Chemicals Unit to Ineos for $5 Billion
(Bloomberg) -- BP Plc agreed to sell its chemicals business to Ineos Group Holdings SA, taking a big step toward strengthening its finances while also furthering its transitioning away from being a traditional oil company.The transaction means BP hits its target of selling $15 billion of assets ahead of schedule, as the oil industry faces immense financial pressure from the coronavirus crisis. The company recently made its biggest write-off in a decade and said it would lay off 10,000 staff by the end of this year.The announcement comes just months after new Chief Executive Officer Bernard Looney set the London-based energy giant on course to eliminate its carbon emissions by 2050, a radical step that has since been followed by its peers.The deal is “the next strategic step in reinventing BP,” according to a company statement issued on Monday. It will “further strengthen BP’s balance sheet and delivers its target for agreed divestments a year earlier than originally scheduled.”BP shares rose as much as 3.1% and were trading at 314.2 pence as of 12:27 p.m. in London.Defend the DividendDespite poor margins recently, petrochemicals is generally seen as a resilient long-term part of the oil business, Bloomberg Intelligence analyst Will Hares said in an interview. Given poor conditions for the sale of exploration and production assets, “this deal could be a sign that BP is doing its best to defend the dividend.”Following Royal Dutch Shell Plc’s surprise dividend cut last quarter, analysts have increasingly warned that BP’s payout could suffer the same fate. The company’s gearing -- a measure of net debt to equity -- has soared, while its dividend yield remains stubbornly above 10%, suggesting investors expect a cut.The much-needed cash won’t hit the company’s coffers for some time. Ineos will pay BP a deposit of $400 million, and a further $3.6 billion on completion. An additional $1 billion will be deferred and paid in three separate installments of $100 million in March, April and May 2021 with the remaining $700 million payable by the end of June 2021.BP also restructured the sale of assets to Hilcorp Energy Co. and Premier Oil Plc earlier this year, which in both cases will result in phased payments.The deal stands out against its peers, such as Shell and Exxon Mobil Corp., which have poured money into petrochemicals, one of the few areas of future growth for oil demand. But BP was already a smaller player in the sector, having sold its petrochemicals and refining business Innovene to Ineos in 2005 for $9 billion.The deal “makes strategic sense” from the company, consultant Wood Mackenzie Ltd. said.“BP held onto these assets in 2005 when they were making strong profits,” Steve Jenkins, vice president of Wood Mackenzie’s petrochemicals team, said in a note. “Now these chemicals businesses are struggling with over-capacity and BP is urgently raising cash.”(Adds further details, analyst comment from 10th paragraph.)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
- Yahoo Finance UK
BP to sell petrochemicals business to INEOS for $5bn
The deal is expected to complete by the end of 2020. INEOS will pay $4bn this year, with additional phased payments for the assets until June 2021.
- Bloomberg
Covid to Keep More Oil Underground, Forcing Drillers to Change
(Bloomberg) -- Hundreds of billions of barrels of oil stranded by weak demand could accelerate companies’ pivot to cleaner energy, or threaten their long-term survival.BP Plc raised the possibility of stranded oil assets when it announced this month it would take the biggest writedown on the value of its business in a decade. But it wouldn’t be the only oil company to leave crude in the ground as the pandemic ravages energy consumption. About 282 billion barrels of undiscovered oil is at risk of being stranded as the virus hastens peak demand, according to Rystad Energy AS.“It does start to have significant implications for how some of these companies are making their investment decisions,” said Jennifer Rowland, an analyst at Edward D. Jones & Co. “Some companies are starting to make investment decisions today and starting to pivot either towards shorter-cycle projects like shale or pivot towards renewables.”BP has already acknowledged that production will decline in the long term, and said whatever is pumped in 2050 “will have to be de-carbonized.” And French oil major Total SA has already started its pivot to renewables. Will other companies follow suit? If they don’t, they may have trouble getting access to the financing they need to keep the drills running over the next few decades, as lower demand locks their resource in the ground, according to Rowland.“There is going to be skepticism about what really is the terminal value of a lot of those assets,” she said. “It makes their investment proposition that much more of a challenge.”For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.©2020 Bloomberg L.P.
- Zacks
The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: AMZN, BABA, NKE, MMM and BP
The Zacks Analyst Blog Highlights: AMZN, BABA, NKE, MMM and BP
- Reuters
BP's stranded Canadian, Angolan assets expose wider industry risks
When BP slashed its long-term oil price outlook last week, prospects in Canada and Angola were rendered worthless, company sources and analysts said, exposing broader risks the industry faces as the world pivots to low-carbon energy. The $17.5 billion write-down, part of Chief Executive Bernard Looney's drive to wean BP off fossil fuel, was the biggest the London-based company booked since the aftermath of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster. BP lowered its long-term oil price outlook from about $70 a barrel to $55, slashing the value of its $14.2 billion early-stage exploration portfolio by two thirds.
- Oilprice.com
Optimism Has Returned To Oil Markets
Analysts are increasingly optimistic about oil markets as demand returns, with a growing number of experts forecasting $50 oil before the end of the year
- Stockopedia
Will the BP share price run continue?
In this article we will quickly re-cap the broker forecasts for BP (LON:BP.). The BP share price has risen by 1.76% over the past month and it’s currently trad...
- Reuters
Exclusive: Price of Caribbean refinery overhaul nearly doubles to $2.7 billion as startup nears
Limetree Bay Ventures is wrapping up construction and will soon start processing crude at the St. Croix, U.S. Virgin Islands, plant, a milestone for investors hoping to tap U.S. East Coast, Latin American and Caribbean demand for gasoline, diesel and marine fuels, the people said. Formerly known as the Hovensa refinery, it will open into a weak refining market, with U.S. East Coast refining margins off 40% compared with a year earlier. Investors led by investment fund manager EIG Global Energy Partners have poured hundreds of millions into the refinery and an adjacent storage terminal.
- Yahoo Finance
Don't expect shale to rise like a 'phoenix from the ashes': Oil expert
Don’t expect the US shale industry, battered by the pandemic and an oil price war already this year, to move into strong growth levels any time soon, says one oil expert.
