BP chief executive officer Murray Auchincloss has said that the company has no plans to relist in the US.
Speaking during the company’s first quarter results webcast, Auchincloss said that the relisting was “not on our agenda.
“What’s on our agenda is safely performing quarter in and quarter out. We’re in a great position with the business, we’ve strong growth coming through, we’ve got solid targets out to 2025 that we believe we can deliver, it will 3-4% underlying cashflow growth if we hit palns through the rest of the decade and certainly through 2025.
“As we continue buybacks, that will give us a chance to increase dividends over time.”
The BP CEO’s comments echo Shell’s recent statements that it is not planning to pursue a US relisting.
Despite concerns that Shell is undervalued, the company’s CEO Wael Sawan said that the company will focus on buybacks to drive its share price up.
BP reported lower than expected first quarter profits, bringing in $2.3 billion, less than the expected $8.2bn analysts expected.
Pension changes
In addition, the company said it will book a $658 million (£528m) tax credit due to UK government changes to the rate of pension fund surplus payments charges.
The UK government last year introduced changes to the amount of tax paid by firms on authorised surplus payments, reducing the rate from 35% to 25% from the start of April.
As a result, BP will receive a nearly $700m windfall after its pension scheme reached a $7.8bn surplus in the first quarter of 2024.
The oil giant’s pension fund has attracted controversy in recent months after the BP board last year blocked a request for a bump in payments to match soaring inflation.
While a 5% uplift was accepted – the maximum annual increase guaranteed under the scheme’s rules – their additional 4% cost-of-living request was denied in April by then CEO Bernard Looney and the board.
In February, BP said providing the additional 4% increase “would have created an additional material liability of approximately £400 million” that would hit the firm’s profit and loss statement.
The move led to a group of 2,500 BP pensioners to issue legal letters to the company’s pension trustees and management.
BP is also reportedly looking an insurance buyout deal for its £30bn final salary pension scheme, with rising interest rates pushing many UK corporate pension schemes into surplus.
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