Stock Markets

BP wins shareholder support for climate strategy

Published

4 days ago

May 12, 2022

BP wins shareholder support for climate strategy

By Ron Bousso and Shadia Nasralla

LONDON (Reuters) -BP shareholders on Thursday backed the energy company’s climate strategy, while fewer investors than last year supported a resolution filed by an activist group urging faster action to battle climate change.

The vote at BP (NYSE:BP)’s annual general meeting came as the British government faced growing pressure to hit BP and its rivals with a windfall tax after energy companies posted a surge in profits on the back of rocketing oil and gas prices in recent weeks.

BP’s chief executive, Bernard Looney, told the meeting that a windfall tax would not change the company’s 18 billion pound ($22 billion) investment plans in Britain to 2030, though fiscal instability would be disruptive in the longer term.

BP’s energy transition strategy includes cutting greenhouse gas emissions from the production and sale of oil, gas and other products to net zero by 2050, with a number of short- and medium-term targets.

The London-based company also plans to slash its oil and gas output by 40% and boost its renewable power business by 20-fold by 2030. The non-binding resolution on Looney’s climate strategy won the backing of 88.53% of shareholders, according to official results.

BP’s climate targets are “relatively ambitious,” but “further disclosures and a strengthening of targets will be required to convince most investors that its strategy is consistent” with U.N.-backed targets of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, Bruce Duguid, head of stewardship at investment firm Hermes EOS, said at the meeting.

A resolution filed by the activist shareholder group Follow This that urged BP to set “inspirational” emission reduction targets, and which was opposed by the company’s board, won the support of 14.86% of shareholders.

That was below the 20.6% support last year for a similar resolution filed by Follow This.

“Investors’ short-termism, fueled by the current windfall profits of BP, might have prevailed over the medium-term risk of value destruction caused by the climate crisis,” Follow This founder Mark van Baal said in a statement.

Stock Markets

Tencent Music’s Q1 revenue underwhelms as competition heats up

Published

3 mins ago

May 16, 2022

letizo News

Tencent Music's Q1 revenue underwhelms as competition heats up

(Reuters) -China’s Tencent Music Entertainment Group (NYSE:TME) posted quarterly revenue in line with Wall Street estimates on Monday, as the audio streaming service struggles with easing demand amid stiff competition.

As part of a broader clampdown on the country’s internet giants, Chinese regulators stripped Tencent Music of its exclusive contracts with big music labels in 2021, spurring competition from rivals such as Cloud Music and Bytedance-owned short video sharing platform Douyin.

Tencent Music said revenue fell 15.1% to 6.64 billion yuan ($979.03 million) in the first quarter ended March 31, in line with expectations, partly due to lower ad sales after a fresh bout of COVID-19 cases in China.

The company reported that online music paying users increased by 4 million from the prior quarter. The company had added about 5 million paying users in the fourth quarter.

Net income attributable to equity holders of the company fell 34.2% to 609 million yuan.

The firm’s biggest revenue driver, social entertainment services, saw a 20.6% fall in the quarter. Meanwhile, paying users in the segment fell to 8.3 million from 9 million in the previous quarter.

U.S.-listed shares of Tencent Music rose 2.2% to $4.24 in extended trading, as the company reported adjusted earnings per American Depository Share (ADS) of 0.54 yuan, which scraped past estimates of 0.53 yuan per ADS.

($1 = 6.7822 Chinese yuan renminbi)

Stock Markets

Tiger Global raised stakes in some tech names battered by year’s rout -filing

Published

3 mins ago

May 16, 2022

letizo News

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Tiger Global raised stakes in some tech names battered by year's rout -filing

© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: A trader works on the trading floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in Manhattan, New York City, U.S., May 5, 2022. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly

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By Svea Herbst-Bayliss

BOSTON (Reuters) – Investment firm Tiger Global, which has lost billions of dollars in this year’s technology stock meltdown, increased its stakes during the first quarter in several companies that have been especially hard hit by the selloff, a regulatory filing shows.

Tiger Global boosted its holding in consumer internet company Sea Limited by 18% to own 13.5 million shares on March 31, according to a filing made on Monday. Sea Limited’s stock price has tumbled nearly 69% since January.

The New York-based firm also upped its investment in cybersecurity technology company CrowdStrike Holdings (NASDAQ:CRWD) by 16% to own 8.8 million shares at the end of the first quarter. The stock price has fallen 27% since January.

Both CrowdStrike and Sea Limited are listed among Tiger Global’s top five holdings in its 13-F report which details what investment managers owned at the end of the last quarter.

While the information is dated, the quarterly filings are closely watched for possible investment trends. These particular filings may be analyzed for what happened at a number of large investment firms now nursing heavy losses in the wake of the tech rout. Stocks in general but technology names in particular have been hurt by news of more aggressive interest rate hikes designed to rein in surging inflation.

The S&P 500 is down nearly 16% year-to-date while the tech heavy Nasdaq Composite has tumbled more than 25%.

Tiger Global also increased its investment in financial services company Block Inc which used to be Square Inc (NYSE:SQ), by 97% during the first quarter. The stock price has tumbled 51% since January.

Tiger Global also liquidated its position in electric vehicle maker Rivian Automotive Inc, whose shares debuted in the public markets to great fanfare last year but have tumbled around 80% since their initial public offering.

A Tiger Global spokeswoman declined to comment.

Tiger Global told investors it lost 44% during the first four months of the year, according to an investor in the fund. The firm, which makes public and private investments and recently managed total assets of roughly $90 billion, made an estimated $25 billion in gains since its launch in 2001 and late last year, according to data from LCH, a fund of hedge funds run by the Edmond de Rothschild Group.

LCH estimates Tiger Global has lost $17 billion so far this year, making it one of the biggest-ever declines in the hedge fund industry.

The first-quarter filing shows that Tiger Global cut some investments in stocks that went on to tumble more.

The firm slashed its stake in Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) by 58% in the first quarter before the stock tumbled 32% since April 1.

It also cut its stake in exercise equipment maker Peloton (NASDAQ:PTON) by 88% to 1.2 million shares as the company changed chief executives and faces pressure from an activist investor to sell itself.

It reduced its stake in Uber Technologies (NYSE:UBER) Inc by 93% to 1.2 million shares as the ride hail company’s stock price has tumbled 46% since January.

Stock Markets

Rocket Lab USA Shares Gain 5% on Q1 Earnings Beat and Raise

Published

31 mins ago

May 16, 2022

letizo News

Rocket Lab USA Shares Gain 5% on Q1 Earnings Beat and Raise

Rocket Lab USA, Inc. (RKLB) shares were trading more than 5% higher after-hours following the company’s reported Q1 results, with EPS of ($0.06) coming in worse than the consensus estimate of ($0.04).

Revenue grew 124% year-over-year to $40.7 million, beating the consensus of $27.48 million, with Space Systems contributing 84% of total quarterly revenue, growing 1,873% year-over-year.

The company provided its Q2/22 outlook, expecting revenue in the range of $51-54 million, compared to the consensus of $41 million, with expected Launch Services revenue of approximately $19 million and expected Space Systems revenue of $32-$35 million.

The company also announced that the CAPSTONE spacecraft has arrived at the launch site Rocket Lab in New Zealand and begin the preparation for the launch to lunar orbit using the Electron launch vehicle and Lunar Photon spacecraft bus.

By Davit Kirakosyan