Aug 4, 2020
BP halves dividend as Covid-19 turmoil pushes oil major to loss
BP slashed its dividend for the first time since the Deepwater Horizon disaster in 2010 as the UK oil major bolsters its finances after the coronavirus pandemic roiled the industry. The company cut the shareholder payout by 50 per cent for the second quarter to 5.25 US cents a share, marking a drastic turnround since the start of the year when BP's confidence about cash generation led it to raise the dividend to 10.50 cents. Analysts had forecast a loss of $6.8bn, with the figure including exploration asset write-offs which are not treated as one-off items. The reported loss tallied at $16.8bn, which is the biggest since the huge charge related to the Gulf of Mexico accident a decade ago. Ahead of a strategy presentation next month by chief executive Bernard Looney, who started in his role in February, BP said over the next decade it aims to have increased its annual low carbon investment 10-fold, to around $5bn a year.
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