Follow This, an activist investor in BP, will seek a vote against the reappointment of the supermajor’s chair at the shareholders’ meeting next month, after BP didn’t consult shareholders on its strategy reset to refocus on oil and gas.
“We don’t want the chair to resign,” Follow This said in a statement on Thursday carried by Reuters, referring to BP’s chair Helge Lund.
“We want him to heed the message that he has crossed a governance line and retrace his steps by offering shareholders a vote,” said the group, which says its mission is for “Big Oil to put their brains and billions in clean energy.”
BP last month said it would increase its investment in upstream oil and gas to $10 billion per year while slashing spending on clean energy by more than $5 billion a year.
The pressure on BP to improve performance became more intense earlier this year after activist investor Elliott Management bought a 5% stake in the supermajor and signaled it would be pushing for changes in strategy, or even for board reshuffles, to address the undervalued shares of the company.
In response to the new strategy, Follow This said that “BP abandons transition strategy before making a serious effort.”
“The previous CEO Bernard Looney was an excellent salesman of green promises, but BP never walked the talk,” Mark van Baal of Follow This said last month.
Early this month, Follow This slammed BP’s decision not to ask shareholders to vote at the annual general meeting on April 17 on the strategy reset.
“BP’s disregard for shareholders will not sit well with a sizable number of investors who want the company to continue their transition,” van Baal said.
“We engage extensively across our shareholder base – and have done so following 26 February,” a spokesperson for BP told Reuters.
“Based on our engagement, the majority of shareholders are not calling for an advisory vote on our plans.”
Source: By Tsvetana Paraskova from Oilprice.com