BP Denies Semafor Report That Some Board Members Favour Breakup

Some board members at BP (LON: BP.), the London-listed oil and gas major, favour breaking up the company, Semafor reported today, citing people familiar with the matter. BP rejected the report outright.

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According to Semafor, a BP spokesperson responded to the report with a single sentence:

This is categorically false.

BP spokesperson

According to the people, no decision has been made and the full board has not formally discussed a breakup, meaning a split into separate businesses. BP could still choose not to proceed, and according to one of the people, chief executive Meg O’Neill appears to be opposed.

Semafor said the idea follows years of smaller spinoffs, where a unit is separated into its own company, that have failed to ease investor pressure for better returns.

BP has recently sold or considered selling stakes in US pipelines, onshore wind farms, North Sea production and venture capital startups, and has contemplated slimming down its retail exposure. O’Neill has framed the strategy as a “simpler, stronger, more valuable BP”.

Elliott, the activist investor, has pressed BP to lift free cash flow, divest renewables and improve capital returns. Semafor noted it has pushed for relistings, moving a share listing to another exchange, at miner BHP but not at BP. How shareholders would respond is unknown.

Semafor, which describes BP as a $129 billion company, said a breakup could reshape the industry and set off a rush for assets among other majors. It also said a relisting in the US could provoke a backlash from the UK government, since BP is one of Britain’s largest public companies and an anchor of a London Stock Exchange that has lost key listings to the US.

BP is due to report earnings on Friday.