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User:Arturo at BP/Stock history

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Stock history

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BP stock is composed of original BP shares as well as shares acquired through mergers with Amoco in 1998 and the Atlantic Richfield Company (ARCO) in 2000.[1][2] The majority of BP investors are in the United States where 38% of shares are held. British investors hold 35% of shares. The remaining shares are held by investors worldwide.[3]

BP shares are primarily traded on the London Stock Exchange, but also listed on the Frankfurt Stock Exchange in Germany. In the United States shares are traded in US dollars on the New York Stock Exchange in the form of American depository shares. One ADS represents six ordinary shares.[4]

In 1979, the British Government sold 80 million shares of BP at $7.58 as part of Thatcher-era privatization. This sale represented slightly more than 5% of BP’s total shares and reduced the government’s ownership of the company to 46%.[5] Following the worldwide stock market crash in October 1987 Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher initiated the sale of an additional $12.2 billion dollars of BP shares, representing the government's remaining 31% stake in the company.[6] In November 1987 the Kuwait Investment Office purchased a 10.06% interest in BP, becoming the largest institutional shareholder.[7] The following May, the KIO purchased additional shares, bringing their ownership to 21.6%. This raised concerns within BP that operations in the United States, BP’s primary country of operations, would suffer. In October 1988, the British Department of Trade and Industry required the KIO to reduce its shares to 9.6% within 12 months.[8] The KIO is the third largest institutional shareholder as of February 2012, according to the Financial Times.[9]

Following the United States’ Federal Trade Commission’s approval of the BP-Amoco merger in 1998, Amoco’s stock was removed from Standard & Poor’s 500 and was merged with BP shares on the London Stock Exchange.[1] The merger with Amoco resulted in a 40% increase in share price by April of 1999.[10] However, shares fell nearly 25% by early 2000, when the Federal Trade Commission expressed opposition to BP-Amoco’s acquisition of ARCO.[11] The acquisition was ultimately approved in April of 2000 increasing stock value 57 cents over the previous year.[2]

In 2005, following the Texas City Refinery explosion, stock prices again fell. By January 2007, the explosion, coupled with a pipeline spill in Alaska and production delays in the Gulf of Mexico, left BP’s stock down 4.5% from its position prior to the Texas City explosion.[12] However by April 2007, stocks had rebounded 13% erasing the 8.3% loss from 2006.[13] Declining oil prices and concerns over oil sustainability also caused shares to fall in value in late 2008.[14]

In April 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill initiated a sharp decline in share prices, and BP’s shares lost roughly 50% of their value in 50 days.[15] BP’s shares reached a low of $26.97 per share on June 25, 2010 totaling a $100 billion loss in market value[16] before beginning to climb again. Shares reached a post-spill high of $49.50 in early 2011[17] and as of April 2012 shares remain down approximately 30% from pre-spill levels.[18]

  1. ^ a b "Business: The Company File Green light for BP Amoco". BBC News. 30 December 1998. Retrieved 28 August 2012.
  2. ^ a b "BP pumps up 2Q profit". CNN Money. 8 August 2000. Retrieved 28 August 2012.
  3. ^ "Ownership statistics". bp.com. BP. 2012. Retrieved 13 September 2012.
  4. ^ "Share capital". bp.com. BP. 2012. Retrieved 11 September 2012.
  5. ^ "Britons rush to buy oil company shares". The Globe and Mail (Canada). 10 November 1979. Retrieved 28 August 2012.
  6. ^ Lohr, Steve (30 October 1987). "B.P. Issue to Proceed; Safeguard Put on Price". The New York Times. Retrieved 28 August 2012.
  7. ^ "Kuwait buys 10 per cent stake in oil giant British Petroleum". The Toronto Star. 19 November 1987. Retrieved 28 August 2012.
  8. ^ O’Connor, Robert (9 October 1988). "Order to Kuwait to reduce BP holdings eases strain in U.S." The San Diego Union-Tribune. Retrieved 28 August 2012.
  9. ^ "BP Plc: Institutional shareholders". ft.com/marketsdata. Financial Times. 17 February 2012. Retrieved 18 September 2012.
  10. ^ Brierly, David (4 April 1999). "BP strikes it rich in America". The Independent. Retrieved 28 August 2012.
  11. ^ "BP Amoco's 4th-Quarter Profit Doubled on Rise in Oil Prices". The New York Times. 16 February 2000. Retrieved 28 August 2012.
  12. ^ Franklin, Sonja (19 January 2007). "BP's Browne Failed on Refinery Safety, Panel Reports (Update5)". Bloomberg. Retrieved 28 August 2012.
  13. ^ Voss, Stephen (24 April 2007). "BP Profit Falls on Lower Oil, Gas Prices, Production (Update2)". Bloomberg. Retrieved 28 August 2012.
  14. ^ Werdigier, Julia (28 October 2008). "BP shows ability to navigate volatile oil prices". The New York Times. Retrieved 28 August 2012.
  15. ^ Smith, Hannah (20 April 2011). "BP one year on: How events unfolded". IFAonline. Retrieved 28 August 2012.
  16. ^ Hays, Kristen; Schnurr, Leah (7 July 2010). "BP shares soar as spill spreads". Reuters. Retrieved 28 August 2012.
  17. ^ Peralta, Eyder (31 July 2012). "BP Posts $1.4 Billion Loss, Surprising The Market". NPR. Retrieved 28 August 2012.
  18. ^ Reed, Stanley (31 July 2012). "Series of Write-Downs Leads to a Loss at BP". The New York Times. Retrieved 28 August 2012.
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