00:00Shell says it has no intention of making an offer for BP, having denied a report that it was in talks with its London-listed rival.
00:08Now, for more on this, we're joined by Will Kennedy, our senior executive editor for Energy and Comandes.
00:13Well, I mean, this is something that's been going on for a while.
00:16There's been speculation. Bloomberg wrote something on it back in May because BP is so weak.
00:22Shell now denying these allegations.
00:25That's correct.
00:26Obviously, BP has been a big story in the oil industry over the recent months.
00:30As you say, Francine, it's underperformed its peers.
00:33Its strategy has been in question.
00:35The CEO isn't getting the best notices.
00:37So it's inevitable that you do get that M&A speculation.
00:40And, of course, Shell is in the frame as the most likely and in some ways probably the only really viable buyer creating an enormous UK oil company.
00:50As you say, we wrote a couple of months back that they had been running the numbers.
00:56The journal took that forward saying that there had been some preliminary talks.
01:01Now, Shell has denied that very strongly.
01:03And what's important about that is that rules shell out for making a bid under UK takeover code for the next six months in most circumstances.
01:11So in that sense, it does move the story forward.
01:15And I think it will probably refocus attention a little bit away from the M&A story and towards how effective the CEO Mario Alkenkloss' strategy is and what Elliot, the active interest investor that currently owns 5% of BP, is going to do to really drive strategy forward and try and raise returns.
01:33So, well, what happens, the UK has, you know, contact authority, basically says that because they said they won't go after it, now they can't do anything for six months.
01:42Is that right?
01:42That's correct.
01:43Once you said we're not going to make a bid, you were bound by that for the next six months.
01:46There are two exceptions.
01:47One, if someone else comes in and makes a bid for BP and then your hands are untied.
01:52And secondly, if BP approaches Shell and said we'd like to talk about you buying us, they can reopen the discussions, but they cannot themselves make an approach to the BP board for at least six months.
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