BP is braced for a significant shareholder revolt this week as opposition mounts to its climate change targets and a controversial plan to hold online-only meetings.
Investors’ ire is focused on the oil giant’s chairman, Albert Manifold, with major fund managers Legal & General, Railpen and the Local Authority Pension Fund Forum planning to vote against his re-election.
They are concerned that BP blocked a shareholder proposal from a Dutch campaign group forcing the firm to explain how its recent strategic shift from renewable energy would perform as demand for oil and gas falls.
The BP board also wants to scrap in-person meetings, in what would be another blow to shareholder rights.
The £34 billion Railpen fund said BP’s proposal to allow online-only AGMs would ‘further limit opportunities for meaningful engagement’.
It was voting against Manifold ‘to reinforce our expectations around effective governance, transparency and the protection of important shareholder rights’, it added.
The move to virtual-only meetings by large companies comes despite ongoing legal queries about their validity.
Ministers want to clarify the law, which dates from more than two decades ago.
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