Shares in BP surged by 8%—the biggest jump since 2020—after activist investor Elliott Investment Management was revealed to have acquired a stake in the UK oil giant.
Investors reacted positively, betting that Elliott, a well-known New York hedge fund with a reputation for shaking up companies, would push for significant changes to BP’s strategy and board.
Analysts noted that Elliott’s involvement could even lead to the exit of BP’s chair, Helge Lund, and force management to pivot more decisively back toward fossil fuels.
Early Monday trading saw the 120-year-old company’s shares rise by over 8%, eventually settling about 6% higher at 461p—the highest level reached since last August.
According to Bloomberg on Saturday, billionaire Paul Singer’s hedge fund, Elliott, has built up a significant stake in the British energy giant. Known for its long-running campaign to recover debts from the Argentine government, the fund has a history of pushing for strategic changes at major UK firms such as GSK, SSE, and Taylor Wimpey.
BP’s shares have lagged behind those of its competitors following a series of missteps, including the dismissal of former CEO Bernard Looney in September 2023 for “serious misconduct” after he failed to disclose personal relationships with colleagues to the board. Many investors have grown frustrated with BP’s strategic shift under Looney, who had aimed to cut oil and gas production in favor of investing billions in renewable energy projects. Although BP has since scaled back these ambitions under new chief executive Murray Auchincloss, uncertainty about the company’s future remains.
Valued at £75 billion and one of the largest constituents of the FTSE 100, BP has even been mentioned as a potential takeover target, with its share price having fallen by a quarter over the past two years.
“For BP, given the circumstances around the changes to its previous chief executive, we think any activist would call for a change in the chairperson at the very least,” said RBC Europe analyst Biraj Borkhataria. Analysts at Jefferies also suggest that board shakeups could include the exit of Helge Lund, the Norwegian who has chaired BP’s board since 2019 and was previously at the center of a high-profile dispute over a £25 million package at BG Group in 2015.
