Jun 15, 2020
City Bulletin: BP resigns itself to a lower oil price with $17.5bn in charges
BP warned it would take a hit of up to $17.5bn in impairments and charges in the three months to the end of June after cutting its long-term oil price forecasts in response to the pandemic. While the oil price has partially bounced back from its lows below $20 a barrel, BP is now planning for a long-term average price for Brent crude of $55. It remains below $40 a barrel, down almost 40 per cent from a year ago. Substantial declines in profitability in lower margin food service and retail sectors would be more than offset by sales in its grocery and higher-margin safety, cleaning and hygiene and healthcare sectors, which had benefited from high demand for Covid-19 related products. SoftBank has quietly poured more than $500m into Credit Suisse investment funds that in turn made big bets on the debt of struggling start-ups backed by the Japanese technology conglomerate's Vision Fund. The number of private equity barons with personal fortunes of more than $2bn has risen from three in 2005 to 22, according to a new analysis which estimates investors paid $230bn in performance fees over a 10-year period for returns that could have been matched by an inexpensive tracker fund costing just a few basis points.
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