Will BP, with its battered share price and reputation, become a genuine takeover target?
While it might be a technically viable, and attractive, target for some companies, there are enough drawbacks to make it difficult to see who might be seriously interested:
Shell and BP in particular have a long history of courtship, which the FT explores. In 1995 Shell approached BP, whose shares were then at a low ebb, but former BP chief executive Lord Browne describes in his memoirs that he stalled until the approach petered out. Then in 2004 it was Browne’s turn to approach Shell, then suffering from its reserves misreporting scandal. But BP’s board was less sure and that too, failed.
As for today, as one banker told the FT: “Shareholders want Mr Hayward focused on fixing this problem. They don’t want to know that he is preoccupied with trying to sort out a deal.”
