BP’s turnaround plans were dealt a major blow on Thursday after its shareholders rejected two resolutions backed by the board and a sizeable minority voted against the re-election of its new chair.
AGM Votes Against Board Proposals
At a crunch annual general meeting (AGM), investors voted down the energy major’s proposal to dial back its reporting commitments on the climate and its plans to allow votes at future meetings to be carried out virtually. The petrochemical giant’s new chair Albert Manifold was also dealt a major dent to his authority, with nearly a fifth of BP shareholders dissenting against a resolution to give him another year heading up the board.
Manifold's Re-election Controversy
Manifold has only been in post as chair-elect since September, having been appointed on a promise to accelerate BP’s re-embrace of oil and gas exploration. But just 82 per cent of the oil major’s investors rubber-stamped his accession, according to initial estimates, in what constitutes a significant rebellion. Board members only require a simple majority to be re-elected, though personnel resolutions typically receive near-unanimous backing at AGMs. The vote lays bare a widening split among BP’s investor base, which was uprooted in February 2025 when activist hedge fund Elliott Management took up a five per cent stake in the then ailing oil major. Elliott has been pushing for the FTSE-100 firm to drastically simplify its operations, doubling down on its core oil and gas business in a bid to arrest a years-long pattern of under-performance relative to its main rivals.
Legal & General Opposition
But other major shareholders had refused to back Manifold’s re-election. In a major broadside, Legal & General, BP’s eighth-largest shareholder, said it was “deeply concerned” by BP’s decision to renege on its climate strategy. “We believe that climate change represents a financially material and systemic long-term risk to our clients’ portfolios,” L&G wrote in a post on its website. Proxy advisers Glass Lewis and ISS had also recommended shareholders vote against Manifold’s re-election, and vote down the remote AGM and disclosure motions.
New Leadership Under Scrutiny
The AGM was the first set-piece meeting for both Manifold and Megan O’Neill, the American oil and gas executive put in charge of overseeing the strategic overhaul. She was named Murray Auchincloss’s replacement in April, after the Canadian was ousted having served less than two years. She formally took the reins last month. The run-up to the pair’s first meeting had been mired in controversy, after the board blocked a resolution tabled by Follow This despite it meeting the threshold. The activist group had lodged a motion that would have obliged BP to devise plans for how to create value for shareholders if the world transitions to net-zero emissions. Joshua Sherrard-Bewhay, environment, social and governance investment analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown, said: “Whilst Manifold has reportedly been re-elected, this has raised governance concerns for some BP shareholders. BP made clear that the resolution was excluded from the ballot as it was not legally valid in their view.”
Market Performance Amidst Controversy
BP had enjoyed an improvement in fortunes in the run-up to the vote, buoyed by the higher oil price resulting from the Iran war. Unlike many of its rivals, the group does have an especially large footprint in the Middle East, meaning its output has not been as badly impacted by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz shipping lane. Its shares are up more than 30 per cent since the start of 2026 and nearly 60 per cent in the past year.
