Kuwait has 10% stake in BP

Press, 20 November 1987, Page 23

Kuwait has 10% stake in BP

NZPA-Reuter London Kuwait has built up a stake of just over 10 per cent in British Petroleum Co Pic (BP), the West’s third biggest oil company. BP said the Kuwait Investment Office, which places the Gulf state’s petrodollars in holdings around the world, had acquired a 10.06 per cent equity stake on Wednesday (early yesterday N.Z. time). Analysts assume it was buying newly-issued part-paid BP stock now on the market. If so, the venture meant the Kuwaitis had paid out at least £4BO million (SNZ 1.363 billion) in two days of heavy trading in BP shares on London's Stock Exchange. Later, they must find £1.25 billion ($NZ3.55 billion) more, half in August, 1988, and the rest in April, 1989. BP is the biggest British company in terms of turnover and, with a history dating back to 1901, is a household name. It advertises with the slogan "Britain at its Best”.

The Kuwaiti move is among more dramatic Middle East purchases into British business. Among the most publicised was the purchase of Harrods, the London top peoples’ department store, by the Egyptian-born el-Fayyed brothers.