D-Day for BP boss as activist moves to oust Murray Auchincloss

By CALUM MUIRHEAD

Updated: 21:50 BST, 12 April 2025

BP boss Murray Auchincloss is facing a rebellion at the company’s annual meeting this week.

The threatened revolt comes after chairman Helge Lund bowed to investor pressure earlier this month and announced plans to step down next year.

Activist investors at the business, including ruthless US fund Elliott Management, which has built up a 5 per cent stake in BP, may now oppose the re-election of Auchincloss as chief executive at the gathering on Thursday.

‘I’d expect Elliott and other investors to vote against Auchincloss,’ said Ashley Kelty, an expert at broker Panmure Liberum. He added that there was a ‘growing feeling in the market’ that the oil giant needed a new chief executive as well as a new chairman.

Other City sources said no one on the BP board could count on their position being secure. Non-executives include Amanda Blanc, the boss of insurer Aviva who also serves as BP’s senior independent director. She is leading the search for Lund’s replacement.

A revolt will pile further pressure on Auchincloss as the beleaguered boss pushes ahead with plans to re-focus the business on oil and gas following an ill-fated pivot towards green energy. BP’s said last week that its debts had risen by £3 billion in the first three months of the year alongside lower production and weaker trading in natural gas.

A sharp drop in global oil prices following Donald Trump’s tariff measures, as well as increased production from the Opec+ cartel of oil-producing nations, will pile more pressure on its finances.

Investors have been clamouring for sweeping change at the top to revive the firm’s share price, which has fallen by more than 30 per cent over the past 12 months (see chart).

Auchincloss has tried to quell the rising discontent by slashing BP’s spending on green businesses by nearly £4 billion a year and boosting oil and gas investment by 20 per cent to nearly £8 billion.

He has also pledged to more than double BP’s value to £160 billion within the next five years – a level not seen since before the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010.

The pledges have so far failed to appease Elliott. Auchincloss also faces attacks from the environmental lobby. Some of BP’s climate-conscious shareholders are now also expected to oppose him due to the change in strategy.

The oil firm suffered a blow on Friday when Legal & General, which owns a 1.8 per cent stake in BP, said it would vote against Lund’s re-election as chairman at the annual meeting – piling on pressure for an early departure.

The insurer said it had ‘substantive concerns’ about the decision to row back on its green energy strategy without putting it to a shareholder vote.

Elliott declined to comment.

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D-Day for BP boss as activist moves to oust Murray Auchincloss

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D-Day for BP boss as activist moves to oust Murray Auchincloss