BP takes small step forward with new chair pick

CRH

21/07/2025 12:30

The author is a Reuters Breakingviews columnist. The opinions expressed are her own.

By Yawen Chen

LONDON, July 21 (Reuters Breakingviews) - BP BP.L has finally found someone willing to lead its board. The $85 billion UK oil major has named Albert Manifold, the former chief executive of building materials company CRH CRH.N, as its new chair. The Irishman is not exactly the ideal candidate, but he brings enough to the table to enable the group to take a small step forward.

BP’s strategic fog has largely lifted. Under CEO Murray Auchincloss, the company has pivoted decisively away from its green ambitions. It is now slashing investment in renewables, doubling down on oil and gas, and projecting itself unapologetically as an oil and gas company. But the group needed to end months of uncertainty over its future governance after current Chair Helge Lund’s troubled reign.

Manifold’s credentials are solid. Over a decade at CRH, he turned the cement supplier into a U.S.-focused construction powerhouse, delivering a total shareholder return including dividends of nearly 400%. He also faced down European activist investor Cevian Capital, responding with portfolio simplification. That background may appeal to BP’s increasingly vocal shareholders including U.S. activist Elliott Investment Management, which holds a 5% stake and wants BP to focus on cutting costs, disposing of assets, and increasing capital returns.

Even so a seasoned executive from the mining or energy sectors, like former BHP BHP.AX Chair Ken MacKenzie, would have been a better fit. A background in building materials suggests Manifold may have less experience than is optimal wrestling with the sorts of geopolitical risks common to the extractive sectors, or global supply chain disruptions.

At CRH, he could also build through acquisitions and ride a U.S. infrastructure boom. While buying 6.5 billion euros of Lafarge-Holcim assets and selling his Americas distribution business for $2.6 billion represent a handy M&A track record, the BP stakes are higher. Early in his tenure Manifold may have to contend with a takeover approach from $207 billion Shell SHEL.L, and will almost immediately have to oversee tough decisions on how to prune BP of underperforming divisions.

Managing through these storms is likely to be more of a headache for BP’s new chair than wondering whether to shift its primary listing to the U.S. - even though Manifold presided over just such a move at CRH. A similar red herring may be whether he immediately looks for a replacement to Auchincloss, who is tainted by association with previous doomed strategies. Even though the oil major’s last Irish Chair Peter Sutherland famously dispensed with ex-CEO John Browne’s services, BP in the short term arguably needs stability.

BP’s pivot back to oil is yet to close its valuation gap with Shell or Exxon Mobil XOM.N. Its first step to doing so was always going to be credible governance. In that sense, Manifold is a step in the right direction.

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CONTEXT NEWS

BP named Albert Manifold, the former chief executive officer of building materials producer CRH, as its new chair, the company said on July 21.

Manifold, who has not previously held a senior position in the energy sector, will join BP’s board on September 1 as non-executive director and chair-elect. He will succeed Helge Lund as chair from October 1.

Manifold has “a strong track record of strategic leadership and operational delivery with a focus on cost efficiency, disciplined capital allocation and cash flow generation”, according to the BP statement.

BP shares rose 0.7% to 402.8 pence as of 0809 GMT on July 21.

CRH shares outperformed those of rivals under Manifold’s leadership https://www.reuters.com/graphics/BRV-BRV/zjvqowarxvx/chart.png

(Editing by George Hay; Production by Streisand Neto)

((For previous columns by the author, Reuters customers can click on CHEN/yawen.chen@thomsonreuters.com))