● It’s no surprise that BP has appointed “the bloke who has been sitting in the boardroom for three and a half years already” as its boss, says Nils Pratley in The Guardian. Murray Auchincloss (pictured), the former chief financial officer, has been with the firm for over 25 years, and represented the “continuity candidate”. He was appointed acting CEO last September following the defenestration of Bernard Looney and will now stay on in the role. He is “wedded” to Looney’s strategy of an “orderly” transition to net zero by 2050, despite investors’ scepticism that green alternatives will generate the same returns as oil and gas. BP trades at a stubborn discount to its more “oily” US peers, and to quell doubts BP will need to achieve an “oil-like 15% over the cycle” from biofuels and the like, while avoiding duds. Auchincloss will “feel the heat from those who would be oily for longer”, but continuity is a “reasonable” stance. The current strategy is only three years old and “should be given a chance to succeed or fail”.
● “Defensive” is one way of putting it. “Two drunks propping each other up” is another. Either way, City brokers Panmure Gordon and Liberum have “opted for a 50:50 all-share bunk-up”, says Alistair Osborne in The Times. But the merger, which will produce cost-saving synergies, “makes sense”, and should deliver more than just cost savings. The combined fir
