PetroChina to buy British pretro tycoon?

badguy2000

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well, BP seems to be on the shortlist of PetroChina.=xD
Takeover target?
Speculation is growing that BP's depressed share price may make it a target for a possible takeover.
"I can understand exactly as to why somebody else would want to buy the BP assets because I think they are grossly undervalued at the moment," said Robert Talbut, of Royal London Asset Management, a BP shareholder.
In a recent research note, Standard Chartered suggested that PetroChina - a subsidiary of China's state-owned national oil company - should make a bid for BP in order to gain a global presence.
"As a shareholder, it's not something that I would welcome and it's certainly not at this sort of share price I would be willing to sell at," Mr Talbut said, in response.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/10281079.stm
 

Armand2REP

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BP is half owned by the United States, they will never allow it, nor would the UK.
 

AirforcePilot

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I have seen the damage BP has caused first hand and it's a blessed mess. The company is in serious trouble and I doubt BP has the financial assets to cover the cleanup cost. Obama wants to place a lien on their assets to make sure there will be enough funds to cover the cleanup and other related cost. It's hard to imagine BP will survive after this mess. I'm glad I'm not invested in that company..
 

Armand2REP

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I was invested in oil companies up until 2008, it used to be a good investment. Not now...
 

Armand2REP

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Oil spill: BP plans to suspend shareholder dividend

Friday, 11 June 2010

BP's directors plan to suspend the oil giant's dividend payment, the BBC has learned.

BBC business editor Robert Peston says that the directors are to meet on Monday to make a formal decision.

However, any formal announcement will not be made until after negotiations with the US president on Wednesday.

BP has been under intense pressure from the US government, which wants BP to use the money to pay for the Gulf of Mexico clean-up.

Meanwhile, BP's shares closed 7.2% higher in London, fully recovering the losses suffered the previous day.

"In practice, Monday's discussion at newly instituted weekly meetings of the board will be about when to suspend the payments, how long to suspend the payments, and what to do with the billions of dollars that would be saved and not paid to shareholders," Robert Peston said.

It looks increasingly likely that dividend payments will be ceased for a period - because of the intense pressure to do so from senior US politicians and the White House

Robert Peston BBC business editor Read Robert's blog in full Q&A: BP and your finances

Pensions expert and former government adviser Ros Altmann told the BBC that if the company did cut its dividend it would be "a blow" but should not be taken "out of proportion".

"For people already drawing a pension it doesn't really have much impact. For people saving for a pension, what we're talking about here is one quarter's dividend perhaps not being paid, certainly initially," she said.

"It will only have an impact on people who are coming up to retirement immediately and will then have to convert their pension fund into a pension straight away, then the value of that pension fund will be less."

Pensions expert Ros Altmann: "I don't think we should take it out of proportion"

The National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF) estimates that UK pension funds' exposure to BP is about 1.5% of their total assets, which are worth more than £800bn.

Joanne Segars, chief executive of the NAPF, agreed that the impact on pensions would be "relatively diluted" as pension funds invest in many different companies' stocks and shares.

"The ability of pension funds to pay out pensions to today's pensioners and tomorrow's pensioners shouldn't be affected by this crisis," she said.

But she added: "If we saw a continuation of withholding of dividends or the company coming under further pressure and further speculation about its future then that's a real issue."
Share rise

BP shares closed at 390 pence on Friday, recovering the losses suffered during a choppy trading session on Thursday.

However, the oil giant's share price has almost halved since the Deepwater Horizon oil spill began on 20 April.

This week, the crisis has taken on a more political dimension with UK Prime Minister David Cameron and senior ministers commenting on the oil spill for the first time.

BP chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg, who has been asked to meet President Obama next week, earlier spoke to both UK Prime Minister David Cameron and Chancellor George Osborne.

A Downing Street spokesman said Mr Cameron had told the BP chairman that he was "frustrated and concerned" about the environmental damage caused by the spill.

He added: "He said that it is in everyone's interests that BP continues to be a financially strong and stable company."

David Cameron will discuss the issue with US President Barack Obama during their regular phone call on Saturday.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/10291371.stm
 
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Singh

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I have seen the damage BP has caused first hand and it's a blessed mess. The company is in serious trouble and I doubt BP has the financial assets to cover the cleanup cost. Obama wants to place a lien on their assets to make sure there will be enough funds to cover the cleanup and other related cost. It's hard to imagine BP will survive after this mess. I'm glad I'm not invested in that company..
As per current US Laws, the company has a limited liability (afaik its in millions). And BP has said that they will bear all costs for the cleanup (which will be in billions).
BP's reputation has taken a tanking but selling it to the Chinese ? Out of the question.
 

AirforcePilot

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White House battle fuels BP takeover speculation

BP's brutal conflict with the White House over the Gulf of Mexico oil spill has fanned speculation about the British firm's long-term health, making whispers about a possible takeover ever more audible.

Facing tumbling stock value, clean-up costs estimated in the tens of billions of dollars and withering attacks from President Barack Obama, BP's sale is now openly discussed by investors.

Britain's Standard Chartered Bank has suggested a takeover by PetroChina to weather the storm, an unthinkable proposal even a few months ago.

But with tens of billions wiped off BP's market value, the wounded giant might seem like easy prey for cash-rich competitors like the Chinese state-owned firm.

Standard Chartered admitted any Chinese effort to snap up the crown jewel of British industry would be beset with political problems, but said creating the world's largest oil firm made business sense.

"We expect a full dose of skepticism on this as a real-world proposition, although we argue for the persuasive economics," they told clients.

"We expect China would support such a deal, while regulators in the United States may raise antitrust concerns.

"While we cannot rationalize any argument that the deal should be blocked on grounds of national interest, local politicians may take a different view."

But other experts are in little doubt that the likes of Shell or Exxon could also be waiting in the wings.

"The rumors started a couple of weeks ago. It is all speculation at this point," said Phil Flynn, an energy analyst at PFG Best. "But when you take the value of the stock and hit it so hard that it is basically trading below book value, people are going to take notice."

BP's net assets, its book value, was worth around 103 billion dollars at the end of March, only slightly less than the total value of its shares today.

The company got some respite on Friday, with its shares up over eight percent in London trade, although they were still trading well below levels seen before the explosion.

That was enough to prompt Goldman Sachs to tell clients the stock may be undervalued: "on our estimates, BP shares now have as much upside potential as the rest of the European integrated oil sector," Goldman told clients.

Yet despite the bargain basement price, any suitor would have to take on the company's liabilities, which at the moment are legion.

"Until we get some clarity on the regulations and the risk, who is going to want to come in and buy them right now? They may still be on the hook," said Flynn.

The company still faces a long battle to prove that cleaning up the worst oil slick in US history and meeting Washington's demands will not prove fatal. But those demands are mounting.

The Obama administration wants BP to pay not just for cleaning up the more than 40 million gallons of oil that have spewed into the Gulf of Mexico so far, but also the costs of a halt in offshore drilling and other economic damage to the region.

According to the American Petroleum Institute -- a lobby group for oil firms -- the drilling moratorium alone will cost 42,600 jobs with 165 to 330 million dollars in lost wages.

Meanwhile Congress is considering eliminating the cap on BP's liabilities, which currently stands at 75 million -- a limit the company has said it will ignore.

In Florida -- not the worst hit state -- Attorney General Bill McCollum has demanded BP deposit "no less than 2.5 billion dollars into an interest-earning escrow account" to help pay for the impact of the spill.

BP has tried to stress it has enough cash to pay any potential damages. But investors are still nervous about the ever-increasing political cost.

In a sign of the severity of the firm's problems, Christine Tiscareno, an equities analyst at Standard & Poor's, on Thursday scrapped her recommendation that clients buy BP stock, despite it trading "well below" its true worth.

UBS meanwhile warned clients a "growing pattern of political rhetoric and market speculation" was having "a greater share price impact than the facts of the spill."

The White House looks set to further ratchet up the pressure, it has summoned BP chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg to a meeting with Obama next Wednesday, the same week that chief executive Tony Hayward is due to testify before members of the US Congress on BP's role in the disaster.

"(BP) can afford to clean this up, they can afford many billions in damages and they should be able to survive," said Flynn.

"What they might not be able to survive is the government."
http://news.xin.msn.com/en/business/article.aspx?cp-documentid=4143765
 

amoy

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As per current US Laws, the company has a limited liability (afaik its in millions). And BP has said that they will bear all costs for the cleanup (which will be in billions).
BP's reputation has taken a tanking but selling it to the Chinese ? Out of the question.
Or spreading rumours to arouse prospect buyers (of course not from China)?? =xy
 

Armand2REP

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BP made £17bn profit in 2008 and $14bn in the crash of 2009. It might cost a year or two of profitability but you don't just walk away from that kind of profit margin.
 

AirforcePilot

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The cleanup of the oil in the short term is estimated at $6 billion. The fines that will probably be imposed on BP will be roughly $40 billion . Also, the company will be responsible for lost wages for those people who are in the seafood industry, restaurant's and hotels, not to mention loss of tourism. It is also possible for BP to lose any contracts they have with our government. It's going to be a rough road for the company for sure.
 
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