BP appoints former CRH boss Albert Manifold as new chairman
Mr Lund had announced plans in April to step down 'in due course', but the group said it would probably take until 2026 to find his successor.
Shares in BP lifted 1% in early morning trading.
Aviva chief executive Dame Amanda Blanc, BP's senior independent director who led the hunt for Mr Lund's successor, said Mr Manifold was 'the ideal candidate to oversee BP's next chapter'.
She said: 'Albert has a relentless focus on performance which is well suited to BP's needs now and into the future.
'He transformed and refocused CRH into a global leader.'
CRH, which has its headquarters in Ireland, switched its stock market listing from London to New York in 2023 and has since seen its share price rocket by 74%.
Speculation has swirled over whether BP will move its London listing to Wall Street after activist investor Elliott Management built up a stake in the group.
But BP chief executive Murray Auchincloss has previously dismissed the rumours, saying in April the group had no plans to change its listing.
Mr Lund has been chairman since 2019, but he has presided over a more challenging past few years for the firm.
He oversaw the hiring of former chief executive Bernard Looney, who quit in September 2023 after failing to disclose his past relationships with company colleagues.
Mr Lund also played a key part in overseeing the group setting its net zero agenda, but the firm has since rowed back on the shift towards green energy.
BP bowed to pressure from shareholders by vowing to accelerate investment in oil and gas while slashing renewable spending by nearly three-quarters.
In a major rebuttal for a FTSE 100 company, Mr Lund received a near 25% vote against his re-election at the firm's annual general meeting in April.
Ahead of the AGM, a group of 48 institutional investors had criticised the board for not offering a direct vote on the oil major's revised strategy, while environmental groups fiercely criticised the climate row-back.
The vote was largely seen as a protest, as Mr Lund had already announced his departure at the time of the AGM.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Independent
5 hours ago
- The Independent
FTSE 100 ends flat ahead of likely US rate hold
The FTSE 100 struggled for direction on Wednesday, despite progress elsewhere, as investors digested another earnings deluge and looked ahead to the US rate call and earnings from technology titans Meta Platforms and Microsoft. The FTSE 100 index closed up just 0.62 of a point at 9,136.94. The FTSE 250 closed 16.49 points lower, 0.1%, at 21,776.58, and the AIM All-Share closed down 3.03 points, 0.4%, at 762.72. In Europe on Wednesday, the CAC 40 in Paris rose 0.2%, as did the DAX 40 in Frankfurt. In New York on Wednesday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 0.1%, the S&P 500 was 0.1% higher, and the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.3%. The US Federal Reserve will announce its interest rate decision at 7pm BST. According to the CME FedWatch Tool, it is near-certain that the Fed maintains rates at the 4.25% – 4.50% range this week. The Fed held in each of the first four meetings this year. Its last cut was in December, a 25 basis points trim to the federal funds rate range. A fifth successive hold is in the offing during the final meeting before a summer break. The US rate call will be swiftly followed by earnings from two of the Magnificent 7 after the closing bell on Wall Street – Microsoft and Meta Platforms. 'Coming hot off the heels of strong TSMC and Alphabet earnings, traders will be watching closely for capex spending habits and chip demand figures to highlight the continuation of the AI story. Nonetheless, for Meta and Microsoft, their performance will once again come down to the hum drum areas of advertising and cloud revenues,' said Joshua Mahoney, analyst at Rostro. Ahead of this investors weighed data showed the US economy registered stronger than expected growth in the second quarter of the year. According to the Bureau of Labour Statistics, the US economy expanded 3.0% quarter-on-quarter on an annualised basis in the three months to June. The reading topped an FXStreet cited forecast of a 2.4% rise and follows a first quarter which saw the US economy shrink 0.5%. 'The increase in real GDP in the second quarter primarily reflected a decrease in imports, which are a subtraction in the calculation of GDP, and an increase in consumer spending. These movements were partly offset by decreases in investment and exports,' the BEA said. But TD Economics said the figures 'overstated' the degree of strength in the US economy. 'An unwinding of Q1's tariff front-running resulted in imports contracting by the largest amount (outside of the pandemic) since the height of the global financial crisis, resulting in a massive positive contribution to GDP. Once the effects of net trade, inventories and government were removed, sales to private domestic purchasers, expanded by just 1.2% or its slowest rate of growth in 2.5 years,' it noted. Nonetheless, US President Donald Trump stepped up pressure for an interest rate cut, citing the rosier economic growth figures. ''Too Late' MUST NOW LOWER THE RATE,' Mr Trump said on his Truth Social platform, using his critical nickname for Fed Chair Jerome Powell. The pound eased to 1.3285 dollars late on Wednesday afternoon in London, compared to 1.3337 dollars at the equities close on Tuesday. The euro traded at 1.1479 dollars, lower against 1.1537 dollars. Against the yen, the dollar was trading higher at 148.94 yen compared to 148.38 yen. The yield on the US 10-year treasury was at 4.37%, stretched from 4.35%. The yield on the US 30-year Treasury was at 4.91%, widened from 4.88%. In London, the results season continued in full swing with results from more FTSE heavyweights hitting the wires. GSK climbed 4.8% as it forecast annual sales growth at the top end of its outlook range, after 'another quarter of excellent performance' saw revenue and profit beat forecasts. The London-based pharmaceutical firm said its portfolio of Specialty Medicines led the way, and the group added that it is 'positioned to respond to the potential financial impact of tariffs'. Revenue in the second quarter of 2025 rose 1.3% to £7.99 billion from £7.88 billion, helping to push pretax profit up 26% to £1.89 billion from £1.50 billion. Core operating profit rose 12% at constant currency to £2.63 billion from £2.51 billion. Company-compiled consensus looked for revenue of £7.80 billion and operating profit of £2.47 billion. But HSBC slumped 5.0% as it said pretax profit fell 27% to 15.81 billion dollars in the six months ended June 30 from 21.56 billion dollars a year earlier. Diluted earnings per share fell to 0.65 dollars from 0.88 dollars. HSBC maintained its interim dividend at 0.10 dollars per share, but announced plans to initiate and complete a three billion dollar share buyback before its third quarter results are released. Housebuilder Taylor Wimpey shed 6.0% after revealing a £222 million increase in its cladding fire safety provision, a move RBC Capital Markets said caused several investors 'we spoke to this morning to choke on their cornflakes'. Elsewhere, International Personal Finance said it would be minded to accept a takeover bid from a suitor of around £500 million, should an offer come. The provider of credit products and insurance services confirmed it was in 'advanced' talks with asset-based financing provider BasePoint Capital. A price per share of 223.8 pence has been mooted, a sum IPF would recommend to shareholders should an official bid materialise, IPF said in a statement. Shares in IPF closed 19% to the good on the news. Brent oil was quoted higher at 72.99 dollars a barrel in London on Wednesday, up from 70.74 dollars late Tuesday. Gold fell to 3,292.75 dollars an ounce against 3,327.45 dollars. The biggest risers on the FTSE 100 were GSK, up 65.50 pence at 1,462.5p, Pershing Square Holding, up 130.0p at 4,194.0p, AstraZeneca, up 340.0p at 11,498.0p, Intercontinental Hotels Group, up 172.0p at 8,848.0p and Spirax Group, up 120.0p at 6,315.0p. The biggest fallers on the FTSE 100 were Taylor Wimpey, down 6.7p at 100.45p, ConvaTec, down 13.40p at 231.0p, HSBC, down 44.0p at 926.0p, Sage Group, down 57.0p at 1,200.5p, and JD Sports Fashion, down 3.16p at 85.9p. Thursday's local corporate calendar has half-year results from miner Anglo American, tobacco manufacturer BAT, gold miner Endeavour Mining, consumer products firm Haleon, stock exchange operator and data provider London Stock Exchange, aerospace company Rolls-Royce and oil major Shell. Retailer Next is set to update on trading. The global economic calendar on Thursday sees an interest rate decision in Japan overnight, plus retail sales, industrial production and consumer confidence figures in Japan, and US weekly initial jobless claims and the Chicago PMI.
Reuters
7 hours ago
- Reuters
BP continuing quality assessment of BTC oil while loadings continue
MOSCOW, July 30 (Reuters) - BP (BP.L), opens new tab, the operator of the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) oil pipeline, said on Wednesday it was continuing its extensive quality assessment of Azeri BTC oil by taking samples before each loading at the terminal. Organic chloride contamination in Azeri BTC crude cargoes was discovered last week, sending price differentials to a four-year low and causing several days' delay in loadings from Turkey's BTC Ceyhan terminal. Delays have been caused in part by the additional testing, sources told Reuters. After enough oil to form a cargo arrives in the shore tank at the BTC Ceyhan terminal, it is tested and the results are shown to the charterers of vessels waiting to load at the port for approval or rejection, a port agent explained on Wednesday. It remains unclear how many Azeri crude cargoes in total have been affected by organic chloride contamination. So far, Austria's OMV and Italy's Eni have confirmed cargoes they had purchased were contaminated. BP also said that it was working closely with Azerbaijan's Socar to manage the off-spec crude in storage at the terminal, while export operations are continuing. A total of six cargoes of Azeri crude have loaded since the organic chloride contamination was first reported on July 22, according to data from analytics firm Kpler.
Daily Mail
9 hours ago
- Daily Mail
BAE boss cheers NATO spending surge as its order book swells to £75B
BAE Systems has hiked its profit and sales guidance, as the British defence giant cashes in on an increase in military spending amid growing geopolitical conflict. The London-listed group said revenue in the first six months of the year soared 11 per cent to £14.6billion and earnings were up 13 per cent to £1.5billionn. Defence firms including BAE Systems have been boosted by a race to rearm across Europe since Russia's invasion of Ukraine three years ago. And it is set to benefit further after Nato members pledged to increase military spending to 5 per cent by 2035. '[The] Nato summit of a few weeks ago and the consensus [to increase defence spending] really underpins our confidence in the long term,' BAE chief executive Charles Woodburn said. But shares in the FTSE 100 giant dipped more than 2 per cent on Wednesday morning as investors were disappointed by the scale of the upgrade. Woodburn said there might have been 'a bit of profit taking going on' on Wednesday but added that he is 'confident in the long-term outlook'. BAE Systems shares are up more than 50 per cent so far this year. BAE received £13.2billion worth of new orders in the first six months of the year, taking its order book to £75billion. And it has accelerated investment in UK facilities due to the 'deteriorating threat environment here in Europe,' Woodburn said. In the first six months of the year, it expanded its Glasgow shipbuilding site and opened a new £25million artillery factory in Sheffield. The company is on track to recruit 2,400 graduates and apprentices in the UK this year. 'We don't ourselves struggle to attract talent', Woodburn said, but warned that 'some of our supply chain may experience more challenges'. 'As the UK, across Europe and the US look to rearm and increase the pace of that, inevitably there are going to be supply chain challenges,' he said. 'We've had quite some shocks to supply chain that we have been able to navigate through,' Woodburn said, citing the Covid-19 pandemic and the start of Russia's war in Ukraine. 'It does require very active management [but] it's not something I think we can't manage,' he said.
