BP bankruptcy ahead? Rivals 'licking their chops
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Some have wondered whether BP can financially survive the disaster in the Gulf. Sure, the oil giant is a diverse, international money-making machine, but the Guardian reported Monday that BP had already spent $1.25 billion seven weeks into the oil spill, with no clear end in sight. The company will be dealing with an avalanche of lawsuits for years (a New Orleans attorney told me she expects that some local law school grads will spend the bulk of their careers working on spill-related cases) and the company's stock recently nose-dived. In spite of all this, BP CEO Tony Hayward has repeatedly insisted that his company will see the disaster through until the Gulf Coast is "made whole" again.
But New York Times financial reporter Andrew Ross Sorkin notes that many industry watchers doubt BP can survive. Rivals Exxon and Shell are already circling like buzzards in anticipation that the company may stagger into oblivion. Or, as Sorkin puts it, they're "licking their chops" hoping to acquire a BP in bankruptcy: "Flinty legal minds are dreaming up scenarios in which BP would file a prepackaged bankruptcy and separate the costs of the cleanup — and potentially billions of dollars in legal claims — into a separate corporate entity."
Sorkin reckons that the company's legal liability and long-term cleanup costs could work out to a red-ink tally of $15 billion to $40 billion. He writes: "The company has about $12 billion in cash and short-term investments, but there is already a debate about whether it should cut its dividend out of fear that it could run out of money. Of course, it could sell assets or seek loans, which in this environment is still not that easy."
Sorkin notes that Wall Streeters are already talking about a "Texaco scenario" — a buyout from an industry rival akin to the deal struck allowing Pennzoil to take over Texaco after the former firm won a multibillion-dollar jury verdict against the latter in a dispute over the sale of Getty Oil. But that was the outcome of a bare-knuckled clash of corporate chieftains, and the BP catastrophe probably won't produce any such dramatic resolution overnight. After all, Exxon — the company responsible for the Alaska Valdez disaster, which had formerly been the largest oil spill in U.S. history — is now the most profitable and highest-capitalized corporation in the country.
— Brett Michael Dykes is a national affairs writer for Yahoo! News.
Report: BP launches search for new investors
ReplyDeleteLONDON/DUBAI (Reuters) – Oil major BP Plc is seeking a strategic investor to secure its independence in the face of any takeover attempts as it struggles with a devastating oil leak in the Gulf of Mexico, newspapers said on Sunday.
Britain's Sunday Times said the company's advisers were trying to drum up interest among rival oil groups and sovereign wealth funds to take a stake of between 5 and 10 percent in the company at a cost of up to 6 billion pounds ($9.1 billion).
Abu Dhabi newspaper The National said BP could get a reprieve from Middle East financial institutions looking to make a strategic investment, citing informed sources.
Proposals from the region have already been submitted to BP advisers in London, the newspaper reported, and could involve Middle Eastern investors purchasing key assets from BP, which has lost more than half its market value since an explosion at the Deepwater Horizon rig on April 20 started the still-gushing leak.
The paper said regional financial institutions might also give financial backing to any capital-raising BP might be considering to reinforce its balance sheet following the environmental disaster, which could cost as much as $60 billion to clean up.
The report did not indicate which Middle Eastern financial firms issued the proposals or what the size of investments could be.
Regional sovereign wealth funds, such as the Qatar Investment Authority (QIA) and Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), have supported Western companies in times of financial crisis by purchasing stakes in western banks and effectively halting declines in their share prices.
Separately, British newspaper the Guardian said BP was holding talks with the Kuwait Investment Office about raising its 1.75 percent stake in the oil company to potentially as much as 10 percent.
Rival oil majors ExxonMobil, Total and Royal Dutch Shell have been mooted as possible bidders.
BP declined to comment on the speculation.
The New York Times reported on Sunday that BP is asking its partners in the ruptured well, Anadarko Petroleum Corp and Mitsui Oil Exploration Co, to contribute nearly $400 million to the clean-up effort.
BP sent out demands for $272 million from Anadarko and $111 million from Japanese company Mitsui on June 2. That represents roughly 40 percent of the $1 billion BP spent in May, according to the newspaper.
BP owns 65 percent of the well, Anadarko owns 25 percent and Mitsui 10 percent.
"We have said that other parties besides BP may be responsible for costs and liabilities arising from this oil spill and we expect those parties to live up to their expectations," BP spokesman Toby Odone said in Houston.
Anadarko and Mitsui did not immediately respond to calls for comment.
Meanwhile, the Sunday Telegraph reported BP was facing fresh criticism over its approach to safety as it emerged it did not use an industry standard process, known as a safety case, to assess risk at the Deepwater Horizon rig.
A BP spokeswoman confirmed to Reuters that it did not use the procedure, developed in Britain after the Piper Alpha oil rig explosion in 1988, at any of its U.S. wells as there was no legal requirement in the U.S. to use it.
BP shares closed down at 322 pence in London on Friday, valuing the business at 60.5 billion pounds.
(Reporting by Matt Scuffham and Shaheen Pasha; Additional reporting by Caroline Copley; Editing by Will Waterman and Todd Eastham)
BP Seeking Investors- Not With My Money-http://stlouisrenewableenergy.blogspot.com/2010/07/bp-seeking-investors-not-with-my-money.html
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