Related Articles
Top Stories
May 27 2012 11:21
There's a price war raging between South Africa's cellphone networks after Cell C lowered the rates of its prepaid calls by more than 34%.
May 28 2012 07:53
The City of Cape Town has spent R175m running the Myciti bus service since the Soccer World Cup compared to an income of R35m, a report says.
May 27 2012 13:09
The oversupply of golf estates has claimed another victim.
New York - BP has tapped financial advisers at Goldman Sachs, Blackstone Group and Credit Suisse as pressure mounts on the British energy giant over the devastating Gulf of Mexico oil spill, US media reported Monday.
A BP spokesperson denied the reports, saying the group did not want to reveal "who are our advisers and on what they are advising us".
"There's no truth that we have hired bankers with a defence mandate," he said.
A person close to the matter confirmed that BP had hired Blackstone financial advisers, but spokespeople for Goldman Sachs and Credit Suisse did not immediately respond to questions for comment.
The New York Times said on its website that BP had brought in the advisers to study how to handle the firm's "mounting liabilities" nearly two months into the massive spill caused by a ruptured well deep underwater on the seafloor.
As complaints and lawsuits pile up against the company, President Barack Obama's administration has also turned the screws on BP, demanding that it not only pay to clean up the Gulf Coast's fragile shorelines but also compensate local workers for loss of employment related to the catastrophe.
The Obama administration has also pressured the firm to place funds in an escrow account to fund any potential liability claims, and to hold off on disbursing dividends.
The oil spill has already cost BP about $1.6bn since the Deepwater Horizon rig it leased sank on April 22, and it may have to pay out several more billions.
Fox Business television said bankers estimate the final bill could reach $20bn paid off over several years, thus helping eliminate the impact on the firm's bottom line.
It said BP hired the financial advisers to develop a strategy on how it could pay all liabilities over the next five years.
Such a move could help BP ward off any hostile takeover or a bankruptcy filing, as the company's share price and value tumble.
According to Fox Business, a bankruptcy filing "is not completely off the table," though bankers say it is a "low probability".
A spokesperson at BP's London headquarters denied any talk of bankruptcy.
She noted that in a March strategy presentation, BP said its cash inflows and outflows were balanced at an oil price of $60 per barrel.
The price of oil was about $75 a barrel in New York.
"Under the current trading environment, we are generating significant additional cash," she said.
- AFP