Latest news with #GiuliaChierchia
The Guardian
5 days ago
- Business
- The Guardian
BP agrees to sell US onshore wind business as it shifts back to oil
BP has agreed a deal to sell off its onshore wind business in the US as the oil multinational turns its back on renewable energy after a failed attempt to go green. The company said it would sell its share of 10 windfarms, which generate enough clean energy to power more than 500,000 US homes, to the New York-headquartered LS Power. The terms of BP's deal with the power and energy infrastructure company were not disclosed. However, the value of the windfarms, nine of which are operated by BP, is understood to be lower than the $2bn (£1.5bn) valuation estimated for BP's onshore wind business in the past. The sale is part of BP's plan to offload $20bn in assets 'to simplify and focus the business' after a failed attempt to reinvent the oil multinational as a net zero energy company, and as it comes under pressure over its sluggish share price. BP said it was 'no longer the best owners' to take the wind business forward. Renewable energy in the US has faced increasing pressure under Donald Trump's presidency. The deal emerged weeks after one of the architects of BP's failed green agenda, Giulia Chierchia, stepped down from her role as executive in charge of sustainability strategy to 'pursue other opportunities' outside the company as it shifted back towards oil and gas production. She will not be replaced at BP, the company said. BP's botched green ambitions have contributed to a collapse in the company's share price over recent years, which has made the 120-year-old company easy prey. Shell was forced last month to deny market speculation that it planned to snap up its smaller rival. Shell has lost almost a third of its market value in the past year and is now worth about £58bn. Its reported interest in BP emerged months after the activist hedge fund Elliott Management amassed a stake in the company to agitate for changes to BP's strategy and its board. So far the turnaround plan spearheaded by BP's chief executive, Murray Auchincloss, has failed to convince investors that the company can recover from a difficult few years during which its rivals have thrived by focusing on fossil fuels while global markets have been volatile. Sign up to Business Today Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning after newsletter promotion Auchincloss plans to shore up BP's balance sheets by completing $3b-$4bn of divestments this year, and has already agreed deals worth $1.5bn. He is expected to set out further progress on the divestment drive alongside the company's financial results for the second quarter in the first week of August. Meanwhile, BP is searching for a new chair to replace Helge Lund. William Lin, the head of the company's gas and low-carbon energy business, said: 'We have been clear that while low-carbon energy has a role to play in a simpler, more focused BP, we will continue to rationalise and optimise our portfolio to generate value. 'The onshore US wind business has great assets and fantastic people, but we have concluded we are no longer the best owners to take it forward.'
The Guardian
5 days ago
- Business
- The Guardian
BP agrees to sell US onshore wind business as it shifts back to oil
BP has agreed a deal to sell off its onshore wind business in the US as the oil multinational turns its back on renewable energy after a failed attempt to go green. The company said it would sell its share of 10 windfarms, which generate enough clean energy to power more than 500,000 US homes, to the New York-headquartered LS Power. The terms of BP's deal with the power and energy infrastructure company were not disclosed. But the value of the windfarms, nine of which are operated by BP, is understood to be about $2bn (£1.5bn). The sale is part of BP's plan to offload $20bn in assets 'to simplify and focus the business' after a failed attempt to reinvent the oil multinational as a net zero energy company, and as it comes under pressure over its sluggish share price. BP said it was 'no longer the best owners' to take the wind business forward. Renewable energy in the US has faced increasing pressure under Donald Trump's presidency. The deal emerged weeks after one of the architects of BP's failed green agenda, Giulia Chierchia, stepped down from her role as executive in charge of sustainability strategy to 'pursue other opportunities' outside the company as it shifted back towards oil and gas production. She will not be replaced at BP, the company said. BP's botched green ambitions have contributed to a collapse in the company's share price over recent years, which has made the 120-year-old company easy prey. Shell was forced last month to deny market speculation that it planned to snap up its smaller rival. Shell has lost almost a third of its market value in the past year and is now worth about £58bn. It reported interest in BP emerged months after the activist hedge fund Elliott Management amassed a stake in the company to agitate for changes to BP's strategy and its board. So far the turnaround plan spearheaded by BP's chief executive, Murray Auchincloss, has failed to convince investors that the company can recover from a difficult few years during which its rivals have thrived by focusing on fossil fuels while global markets have been volatile. Sign up to Business Today Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning after newsletter promotion Auchincloss plans to shore up BP's balance sheets by completing $3b-$4bn of divestments this year, and has already agreed deals worth $1.5bn. He is expected to set out further progress on the divestment drive alongside the company's financial results for the second quarter in the first week of August. Meanwhile, BP is searching for a new chair to replace Helge Lund. William Lin, the head of the company's gas and low-carbon energy business, said: 'We have been clear that while low-carbon energy has a role to play in a simpler, more focused BP, we will continue to rationalise and optimise our portfolio to generate value.' 'The onshore US wind business has great assets and fantastic people, but we have concluded we are no longer the best owners to take it forward,' Lin added.
Business Recorder
29-04-2025
- Business
- Business Recorder
BP reports 48% profit drop as strategy chief leaves
LONDON: BP on Tuesday reported a deeper-than-expected 48% drop in net profit to $1.4 billion on weaker gas trading and refining results and announced the departure of its strategy chief as it tries to shore up investor confidence. Under pressure to improve profitability and cut costs CEO Murray Auchincloss has announced plans to sell $20 billion of assets through to 2027 and reduced spending and share buybacks. The British energy giant has abandoned a move to slash hydrocarbon production and boost its low-carbon business, plans pushed by strategy and sustainability chief Giulia Chierchia who announced on Tuesday that she would step down on June 1. U.S. fund manager Elliott Investment Management had wanted a change of strategy chief as it seeks higher free cash flow through deeper cuts to spending and costs, sources familiar with the matter told Reuters. BP's shares have lagged peers since its foray into renewables under previous CEO Bernard Looney who brought Chierchia into BP. Since Auchincloss's strategy revamp in February, BP's shares have lost 20%, compared with a 7.5% and 1.8% drops for rivals Shell and Exxon, respectively. BP makes oil discovery off US Gulf coast BP shares were down around 2.8% at 1404 GMT, compared with a 0.6% fall in a wider index of energy companies. BP posted a first-quarter underlying replacement cost profit, or adjusted net income, of $1.38 billion, below the $1.53 billion expected by analysts in a company-provided poll. That was down from $2.7 billion a year earlier. Profit at its gas and low-carbon unit was down around 40%, hit by weaker trading and lower production after asset sales. Its customers and products business was down by around 47%. BP said it expects to conduct a heavy refinery maintenance programme in the second quarter, which likely means lower output. Amid an industry-wide fall in refining profitability, BP's refining margins averaged $15.20 a barrel in the first quarter, down from $20.60 a year earlier. BP is buying back $750 million in shares for the quarter, at the low end of its guided range, a stark slowdown from buybacks that totalled $7.1 billion last year. Finance Chief Kate Thomson said BP would provide no guidance on the size of future buybacks. BP increased its outlook for asset sales this year to $3-$4 billion from $3 billion previously. It also cut its spending outlook for this year by $500 million to $14.5 billion and reiterated its $13-$15 billion target for next year and 2027. Global benchmark Brent crude prices averaged around $75 a barrel during the January-March quarter, compared with around $87 a year earlier. Earlier this month, oil prices went into free fall after U.S. President Donald Trump announced tariffs on trading partners and Brent is now hovering around $66 a barrel. 'In the event of sustainably lower prices, we would expect deflation to become evident across our capital plans and we see around $2.5 billion of further capital flexibility, should we require it,' Auchincloss said in a presentation. 'This is equivalent to around $10 per barrel of oil price sensitivity.' He added in a conference call, that executing this option for further spending cuts would hit its long-term growth. Elliott has increased its stake in BP to just over 5%, placing it between top shareholders BlackRock and Vanguard, LSEG data shows.
Yahoo
29-04-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
BP green energy chief to exit as it retreats from low-carbon investments
The architect of BP's failed green energy agenda will leave the embattled oil company within months as it continues its retreat from low-carbon investments amid a sharp fall in profits. The oil company said Giulia Chierchia, the executive in charge of BP's sustainability strategy, would step back from her role from 1 June 2025 to 'pursue other opportunities' outside the company. She will not be replaced. BP announced her departure weeks after its chair, Helge Lund, said he would step down from the company by next year, and later faced a shareholder rebellion at its AGM over his role in overseeing BP's failed green agenda. Related: HSBC sounds alarm on trade war; Trump to soften blow of automotive tariffs – business live Chierchia and Lund had faced questions over their future in the months since BP abandoned its green strategy in favour of a renewed focus on oil and gas to increase its profits and bolster its flagging market value. The company's profits dropped by almost 50% in the first three months of this year to $1.4bn (£1.0bn), from $2.7bn in the same period last year. It reported the worse than expected start to the year after its annual profits fell by a third in 2024 to $8.9bn. BP's shares fell more than 4% on Tuesday. BP's financial struggles has made the company a target for New York hedge fund Elliott Management, which is notorious for amassing stakes in struggling companies in order to agitate for changes that could increase market value, leading to a profit for the fund. The activist hedge fund has built a 5% stake in BP and has reportedly called on the oil company to U-turn on its green agenda and tighten its financial discipline while undertaking an overhaul of its board. BP's share price has lagged its industry rivals in recent years after former chief Bernard Looney set the company on course to become a 'net zero' energy company under Chierchia – whom he hired months after taking the top job in early 2020. Looney left BP abruptly in September 2023 after admitting that he failed to fully disclose his relationships with female colleagues to the board. BP said Chierchia's sustainability team would be integrated into other parts of BP's business to 'simplify our structure' and enable 'quicker decision-making and clearer accountabilities'. The company has also promised investors it will tighten its spending, particularly in low-carbon energy, and increase its plans to sell off parts of the business as part of its efforts to improve the company's flagging market value. BP plans to lower its planned spending for 2025 by $500m to about $14.5bn this year. It will also divest between $3bn and $4bn of assets, up from its previous plan to sell off business interests worth $3bn this year. The company aims to sell $20bn in total by the end 2027. The BP chief executive, Murray Auchincloss, said: 'In February, we announced a fundamental reset of our strategy – to grow the upstream, focus the downstream an invest with discipline in the transition – and we have already made significant progress.' The company has started up three big oil and gas projects, and made six exploration discoveries. Sign in to access your portfolio
Telegraph
29-04-2025
- Business
- Telegraph
BP's green energy architect forced out as profits halve
The chief architect of BP's green energy strategy has been forced out and will not be replaced as the oil giant turns its attention back to fossil fuels. Giulia Chierchia, who heads up BP's sustainability division, will leave on June 1, the company said on Tuesday, just days after it emerged that the activist hedge fund Elliott Management was pushing for her replacement. It came as BP said profits halved in the first three months of 2025 compared with a year ago. BP's shares fell by more than 4pc in early trading after it posted a 49pc fall in profits to $1.38bn (£1.03bn), falling short of analysts' expectations of $1.53bn. BP is scrambling to shift its focus away from the climate-friendly agenda set by Bernard Looney, its former chief executive who was sacked in 2023 after misleading the board over relationships with colleagues. Ms Chierchia was hired under Mr Looney in 2020 with a role that also included 'embedding the group's ethics and compliance within the organisation'. Last week it was reported that Elliott, which owns more than 5pc of BP's shares, was pushing for her to be removed. A spokesman for BP said on Tuesday: 'Giulia Chierchia ... is stepping back from her role from 1 June 2025 and is leaving BP to pursue other opportunities, and she will not be replaced.' This month the company faced a shareholder revolt at its AGM when 24pc of investors voted to sack chairman Helge Lund with immediate effect, even though he had already announced that he will step down in a year's time. Mr Lund, along with Mr Looney, had led the company's ill-fated 2020 attempts to shift to green energy and then oversaw the reversal of that policy in February. BP's latest results will pile pressure on its chief executive, Murray Auchincloss, who has agreed to cut back on investment in green energy and refocus on oil and gas. Mr Auchincloss said: 'In February, we announced a fundamental reset of our strategy – to grow the upstream, focus the downstream and invest with discipline in the transition – and we have already made significant progress. 'So far this year we have started up three major projects, made six exploration discoveries and have progressed our divestment programme – all while delivering strong operational performance. 'I'm confident that our plans to strengthen the balance sheet, reduce costs and improve cash flow and returns will grow long-term shareholder value.' Ashley Kelty, an analyst at Panmure Liberum, said there was little sign of BP being able to reverse its profits slump. He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: 'The concern is the big rise in net debt that jumped by over a third since the end of 2023 along with lower free cash generation from lower oil prices. 'It's going to be very hard to get that down. The share buybacks look like they're only going to be $3bn this year, which is a fraction of the $7bn they paid out last year, but at least they did keep the dividend held at eight cents a share. 'They need to really ditch the low margin renewables business. They're just clearly not very good at it. It doesn't generate the same returns that oil and gas want. I think investors want them to focus on what they're good at, which is oil and gas.' Mr Kelty pointed out that the subsidies that have supported green industries of the kind backed by BP were likely to shrink. He added: 'The problem is, renewable subsidies are going to be cut with the large push to rearm across Europe. It's going to be bombs over wind farms, I think, for a few years. So the returns for renewables are going to be under pressure. But for oil and gas, there is still high returns.'
