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Big BP shareholder slams Rosneft deal
ONE OF BP’s biggest shareholders spoke out against its revised plan to swap shares with Rosneft yesterday.
David Cummings, head of UK equities at Standard Life Investments said in an interview: “[T]he logic for doing the £5bn share swap with Rosneft has gone in our view. I mean they’ve just had their joint venture blocked, and that’s to explore in the Arctic… at the moment we don’t think BP has got a plan B.”
Cummings told Radio 4 “the deal is in trouble” unless BP can reconcile its differences with Russian partner AAR and their joint venture, TNK-BP.
BP was forced to amend its proposal last week after a tribunal supported AAR’s objections to the deal, and now hopes to swap shares without gaining any Arctic exploration rights.