1 week Ago By Stephen Bartholomeusz
There’s a yawning gap between the valuations of US oil and gas majors and their UK and European counterparts. That’s prompted a debate over whether the more lowly-rated energy giants should switch their primary stock exchange listing to New York. The discussion was given a sharper edge late last month when the chief executive of France’s Total Energies, Patrick Pouyanné, said the century-old super major, which was founded by the French government, was seriously considering a shift of its listing , albeit not its headquarters.
Shell, which shifted its headquarters from The Hague and unwound its dual listing to base itself, and its shares in London in 2022 is known to have also seriously pondered a shift in its primary listing three years ago. The push to move away from fossil fuels is weighing on the share prices of Europe and Britain’s oil giants. Credit: Bloomberg BP has said a move is not on its agenda, but would inevitably have done some analysis on it.
There’s also been speculation that its relatively low sharemarket valuation could make it a target for one of the more highly-rated oil giants, which could effectively produce a transfer of its listing. The driver of the discussion is a significant disparity in the sharemarket valuations of European and UK energy companies relative to their US counterparts like Exxon and Chevron, which trade on cashflow multiples up to 50 per cent higher than their trans-Atlantic rivals. Not only does that make their shareholder.
