May 26 (Reuters) - BP has removed Chairman Albert Manifold with immediate effect, it said on Tuesday, citing governance oversight and conduct issues just months after his appointment to help oversee a strategy revamp.
"The board has been surprised and disappointed to learn of governance oversight and conduct issues it deems unacceptable and has taken decisive action," Amanda Blanc, senior independent director at BP, said in a statement published by the company.
COMMENTS:
HENRY TARR, ANALYST AT BERENBERG,
LONDON
"This is the latest in a series of changes with the leadership team at BP. Manifold had been credited with the push to simplify the company and accelerate the turnaround, and he had overseen the appointment of the new CEO Meg O'Neill.
"His sudden removal will raise questions on the strategy of the company and the reasons for the ongoing churn of executives and board members. At BP's recent AGM, 18% of shareholders voted against his re-election after the board blocked a climate resolution from the activist shareholder group 'Follow this'; overall however, it appeared as though investors backed his vision for the company."
DAVID MORRISON, SENIOR MARKET ANALYST AT TRADE NATION, UK
"It's one of these stocks that should be up there with the Chevrons and the Exxons, even the Shells as well, but it's had such a bad run for quite a few years now and this is just yet another example. It's always some nasty, bad PR story that hits them.
You can say that it's all a bit unfortunate, really. It could happen to anybody, but it keeps on happening to BP, I'm afraid. It's an extraordinary reaction this morning.
Meg O'Neill is the CEO at the moment and they're no doubt sort of like giving her the benefit of the doubt. I think they're probably doing all the right things in response to this. But, it's just one of those things that bad things keep happening to BP."
ALASTAIR SYME, ANALYST AT CITI
"The exact reasons for the dismissal of Chair Albert Manifold from the Board of BP have not been disclosed but are, in our view, moot.
"The issue is that, unusually for a large IOC, he was part of the equity story: we know many investors that, after several years of turmoil at BP, were re-engaging in the equity story because of his driving of change.
"The question is, has he done enough in his brief eight-month tenure - most notably removing the former CEO and hiring Meg O'Neill - that the investment pathway for the company is now largely set?"
BIRAJ BORKHATARIA, ANALYST AT RBC CAPITAL MARKETS
"Yet again we find ourselves opining on another unexpected change in senior personnel at BP. Without details, it is impossible to judge what exactly happened, but if it was financially related, we would expect this to be noted in the release.
" Note that BP's chair was recently facing pressure from some investors over the processes at the AGM, whereby some resolutions were not put forward despite meeting the key requirements.
"Given that many investors had cited Albert to us as 'the agent of change' at BP, the negative share price reaction is reasonable, however if underperformance continues, assuming no financial impacts, from a valuation perspective, we expect BP shares would become more attractive for a potential acquirer."
(Reporting by Raechel Thankam Job, Vallari Srivastava and Johann M Cherian in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai)
