BP head scheduled to meet with high status Arabs

Calcutta News.Net
Saturday 10th July, 2010

BP to meet with Arab officials

BP chief Hayward meeting with Abu Dhabi crown prince

Head of BP to meet with Abu Dhabi crown prince

DUBAI (Agencies)

BP PLC’s Chief Executive Tony Hayward met this week with Abu Dhabi’s powerful Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and would be happy to sell the oil-rich sheikdom a 10% stake in the U.K. oil giant, a person with knowledge of the meeting said. Hayward flew into Abu Dhabi on Tuesday for meetings with officials including the crown prince and also spoke to the company’s employees in the emirate in a town-hall gathering, according to a person familiar with his itinerary.

“He’d be happy for Abu Dhabi to take a 10% equity stake,” said the person, who asked not to be identified.


A coveted sovereign wealth funds

The official, speaking on a condition of anonymity, said that Hayward had met officials from Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA) during a routine visit. ADIA is the sovereign wealth fund (SWF) owned by Abu Dhabi, and it has never published to date how much it has in assets, acceptable estimates speculate the sovereign fund to reach $650 billion. He also said that Hayward’s visit was a scheduled one mainly for discussion of BP’s concessions with Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC). “With the CEO in Abu Dhabi speaking to the sovereign wealth fund to get some investment it’s not surprising that there is some enthusiasm in the market for BP shares,” said Mic Mills, head of electronic trading at London- based ETX Capital. BP has said it has no plans to issue new equity to anyone, but bankers say it is on a marketing drive for its stock — which has fallen by half since the Gulf of Mexico well blew out on April 20. “This is not part of him traveling the world with a begging bowl asking for equity contributions,” a BP spokesman told the UAE’s National newspaper. “We are not preparing an equity offering but we’re keen that people appreciate the value in BP.” Sheila Williams, a spokeswoman for BP in London, declined to comment on specific meetings but said Mr. Hayward “is visiting key business partners as well as staff.” BP is currently struggling to cap an oil spill disaster in the Gulf of Mexico.

A spokesman for the crown prince was unreachable for comment. A spokesman for the federal government in Abu Dhabi said he had no knowledge of the meetings.


A welcomed step

“Anything that would speed up the process or any kind of success at all as far as capping it would be a welcome relief. Then you can get down to a definitive range of liability,” said Alan Lancz, president at Alan B. Lancz & Associates Inc in Toledo, Ohio. “All the negative news on the stock has had its impact,” said Kurt Wulff, president at McDep LLC, an oil and gas research firm in Needham, Massachusetts. “We’re optimistic that the news can get better from there. The talk about sovereign buyers may not lead to anything, but it certainly means that value-orientated investors are seeing opportunity.” Middle East SWFs have a record to stop troubled western companies’ shares from reaching bottom. The SWFs of Qatar and Abu Dhabi took stakes in western banks such as Citigroup and Barclays, putting an effective “floor” under the companies’ share prices and stopped further declines. Kuwait has ruled out an increase in its stake in British oil giant, a sovereign wealth fund official said. “We are not currently considering increasing our stake in this company,” the official said when asked about the possibility of new Kuwaiti investments in BP. The Kuwait sovereign wealth fund currently holds a 2.8 percent stake in the British company.

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