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BP Amoco shareholders approve acquisition of ARCO Synergies on North Slope expected to generate savings of 80 cents a barrel, Browne tells London shareholders meeting Kristen Nelson PNA News Editor
BP Amoco shareholders “voted conclusively” to approve the company’s acquisition of ARCO at a Sept. 1 meeting in London. In addition, the company said, a majority of 99.3 percent of proxy votes received, 5.9 billion shares, were in favor, with 28 million voted against and 9.7 million abstentions.
BP Amoco said that more than 60 percent of the shares at issue were voted. Shareholders also voted in favor of a split of BP Amoco shares which will have the effect of doubling the shares in issue.
BP Amoco Co-Chairman Peter Sutherland said the voting indicated “overwhelming shareholder support for the ARCO combination.” Noting that “since the beginning of 1994 we have added some $75 million a day to the value of the company,” he said the share split was “designed to bring our share price more into line with our principal competitors in the UK and the U.S. and hopefully to make our shares more attractive to shareholders both here and in the U.S.”
Benefits from acquisition BP Amoco chief executive Sir John Browne said: “Today’s conclusive endorsement by our shareholders is a crucial step in our progress towards closing the transaction. Our discussions with the various regulatory authorities are also moving constructively ahead and our integration plan is ready to be implemented. All of this gives us great confidence that we can meet our target to complete the deal before the end of the year.”
Browne told shareholders that the strategic logic behind the combination of BP Amoco and ARCO “gives us a series of distinctive competitive opportunities and positions us for growth in some of the most exciting markets in the world.”
The “unique advantages” of the ARCO acquisition for BP Amoco in Alaska were the first things Browne discussed. He said the acquisition of ARCO “gives us the potential to extend the life and to increase the value of the remaining resource base in Alaska because it gives us the chance to improve the economics of our operations by reducing our current costs by around 80 cents a barrel.”
Browne said BP also expects to be able to increase the total resource base in Alaska through continued exploration success. And, he said, “One of the most exciting longer term opportunities is the development of the very large unbooked gas resource. We have to find a way of doing that — economically.”
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