Speaker 1: Bloomberg Audio Studios, podcasts, radio news.
Speaker 2: The Stock Movers Report, your roundup of companies making moves
Speaker 2: in the stock market. Harnessing the power of Bloomberg Data.
Speaker 3: Let's take a look at some stocks on the move
Speaker 3: today in Europe. I'm Stephen Carroll and I'm joined by
Speaker 3: Bloomberg's Breaking News editor Louise Moon. Louise, good morning. Let's
Speaker 3: start with BP today announcing a major shakeup at the top.
Speaker 1: Indeed, yeah, announcing a new CEO, which was quite an
Speaker 1: unexpected bit of news this morning. So they are replacing
Speaker 1: the old CEO after just two years and bringing in
Speaker 1: a lady called Meg O'Neil. So she's coming from Australia's
Speaker 1: Woodside Energy. She's been there for four years and before
Speaker 1: that she spent about two decades at Exon in the US,
Speaker 1: so it marks quite a few firsts. She's the first
Speaker 1: female CEO across major oil companies. She's also BP's first
Speaker 1: outsider who's been appointed as their top boss, and she's
Speaker 1: being seen as well. Essentially, BB's come under a lot
Speaker 1: of pressure in the past few years from activist investor Elliott.
Speaker 1: They're pushing for a huge turnaround and focusing on a
Speaker 1: focus on their core on oil and gas, which their
Speaker 1: previous CEO has been doing. He has kind of been
Speaker 1: pushing for a major reset. But Analyss is saying that,
Speaker 1: you know that there's room for more aggression, that there
Speaker 1: could be a lot more of an aggressive push towards
Speaker 1: this turnaround. And she's being seen as having quite a
Speaker 1: what one analyst called a hands on track record in
Speaker 1: engineering and operations. So it's signaling that that focus will
Speaker 1: come to the fore and it will be a real
Speaker 1: focus on oil and gas. So potentially some good news there,
Speaker 1: although shares shares aren't reacting too much but did dip
Speaker 1: slightly that there's a bit of worry about you know
Speaker 1: that this could bring a bit of near term turbulance
Speaker 1: for any kind of major push towards that turnaround really
Speaker 1: happens and comes about. So there's a slight bit of
Speaker 1: transition risk, as people are saying. But yeah, a real
Speaker 1: big shake up at BP, and you know they also
Speaker 1: had a new chair in July, so it's a lot
Speaker 1: of change at the top, and you would think that
Speaker 1: Elliott would now be expecting a real change to happen.
Speaker 3: Yeah, indeed, chair is just up by half of one
Speaker 3: percent for BP this morning in London, but so much
Speaker 3: going on. As you say, Louise, let's turn into Whitbread
Speaker 3: next there shows up over six percent. What's going on?
Speaker 1: Yeah, So Whitbread the the hotel operators is obviously they're
Speaker 1: the owner of premit In among other hotel chains. As
Speaker 1: you say that, they're gaining this morning the biggest game
Speaker 1: on the foot of one hundred. This is after a
Speaker 1: activist firm. So in a similar light to BP, an
Speaker 1: activist firm has accumulated just over a six percent stakes.
Speaker 1: This is Corvec's management and they're calling for a review
Speaker 1: of Whitbread. In particular, Whitbread's laid out a five year
Speaker 1: billions three point five billion pound investment plan. They're calling
Speaker 1: for a strategic review of that, and they're saying that
Speaker 1: the current market price of Whtbread reflects a discount to
Speaker 1: their fundamental value. And they also want representation on whipbress board.
Speaker 1: So pushing for that change, which is sending shares higher,
Speaker 1: so potentially a bit of welcome news or being being
Speaker 1: welcomed by the market.
Speaker 3: Okay, So that's yeah, exactly, as we're seeing those shares
Speaker 3: higher this morning, you've also been looking, asked Ryan Mattal
Speaker 3: after an update from the company.
Speaker 1: Yeah, the shares a little change on the update, obviously,
Speaker 1: Ryemetel's always one that's interesting to talk about, and we're
Speaker 1: talking about you look at their share rally of the
Speaker 1: past year that it's rallied about one hundred and fifty percent,
Speaker 1: So little change today, but it's still far higher than
Speaker 1: they were a year ago. They had a update, they
Speaker 1: adjusted their fo your outlooks, so they're seeing they're now
Speaker 1: expecting higher sales and a higher operating margin. A list
Speaker 1: are saying, you know, this is quite reassuring. And alongside
Speaker 1: that update, rhyme Hotel also said that they're aiming to
Speaker 1: divest one of their units, that's all the remaining civil businesses,
Speaker 1: and negotiating with two bids for their power systems units.
Speaker 1: So a bit of change in terms of their business
Speaker 1: units and adjusting the outlook higher on two counts. So
Speaker 1: seen as a reassuring as I say, shares a not
Speaker 1: majorly change, given this is not you know, kind of
Speaker 1: a major boost to the stock that's already seen a
Speaker 1: lot of games.
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