Activist investor requires heads to roll at BP

An activist investor has launched a scathing attack on BP and called for chairman Helge Lund to quit because of what it describes as the energy giant’s ’embarrassing’ performance.

The London-listed firm has lagged UK rival Shell and US oil giants Chevron and ExxonMobil, which have doubled down on profitable fossil fuels while BP has focused on renewables.

Shareholders have been underwhelmed by the green strategy, which has made BP an outlier among its energy peers.

Recent reports suggest new chief executive Murray Auchincloss is planning to refocus on oil and gas following investor pressure to improve BP’s share price and profits. But the FTSE 100 firm has refused to confirm this and will not update shareholders on its strategy until February.

Bluebell Capital Partners, a London-based hedge fund, has written to the board twice in recent weeks to attack the firm’s management and approach.

Co-founders Giuseppe Bivona and Marco Taricco described BP’s performance as ‘unacceptably dire’. The firm, which holds a small undisclosed stake in BP, welcomed reports that the company was planning to ditch fossil fuel reduction targets.

In its latest letter, Bluebell criticised directors for waiting to update investors on its green strategy, calling the delay ‘indefensible and utterly outrageous’.

Bluebell successfully campaigned for the removal of Hugo Boss’s chief executive in 2020 and helped to topple the boss of French consumer goods giant Danone a year later.

But the firm sold its stake in Glencore after it lobbied unsuccessfully for the ousting of chief executive Gary Nagle this year.

It has previously set its sights on asset manager BlackRock, campaigning for the dual role of chief executive and chairman, held by billionaire co-founder Larry Fink, to be split into two.

Now the hedge fund, which has only been in existence for five years, has embarked on an audacious David-and-Goliath assault on one of the world’s biggest oil companies and two highly-respected boardroom titans.

It called for Lund, one of Europe’s foremost industrialists and who has chaired BP for five years, to step aside. The Norwegian also chairs Danish pharmaceutical giant Novo Nordisk, maker of weight loss drug Ozempic. He was previously chief executive of BG Group before it merged with Shell in 2016.

The hedge fund urged independent director Amanda Blanc, also chief executive of insurer Aviva and a well-regarded figure, to step down.

‘BP should immediately present an updated strategic plan,’ Bluebell said. ‘Waiting until the publication of the 2024 full-year results is a waste of time and creates the false impression that this update is business as usual.

‘The update must be a clear acknowledgment of the board’s failure. In the meantime, information that is regulated in nature seems to be clearly, and unacceptably, leaked to the Press by company sources in an effort to calm the market and ‘buy more time’. Given the continuing evidence of a grossly mismanaged company, we see no option than for the chairman of the board and the lead independent director to be removed.’

A spokeswoman for the oil giant said: ‘As a listed company, BP fully complies with its legal and regulatory obligations.’

Bluebell is a small outfit that takes on big targets from its HQ in London’s Belgravia. The hedge fund, founded in 2019, has become a thorn in BP’s side after launching a campaign against its green strategy a year ago.

It came after former boss Bernard Looney, who resigned last year after misleading the board over his relationships, introduced targets to cut BP’s oil and gas output. He initially said fossil fuel production would be cut by 40 per cent by 2030, before reducing the target to 25 per cent. Auchincloss is reportedly planning to scrap the target altogether. BP has not confirmed the reports.

‘The failure of the current strategy is ultimately reflected in the embarrassing performance of BP’s share price versus its peers,’ said Bluebell.

The Mail on Sunday understands that BP has met Bluebell twice, with one meeting attended by Lund. It is said to believe Bluebell’s views are not widely shared among its investors.

‘From our extensive and active engagement with our shareholders, there is no meaningful support for Bluebell’s position,’ BP’s spokeswoman said.