LONDON, 10 December 2005 — Kuwait has sold 185 million shares in BP to a consortium of banks, reducing its stake in the British energy giant to 2.56 percent, representatives of Kuwait announced here yesterday.
The Kuwait Investment Office (KIO), based in London, did not give a value for the disposal. However, based on BP’s share price at the close of trading on Thursday, the sale was worth 1.2 billion pounds (1.78 billion euros, $2.1 billion).
The divestment was meanwhile carried out in order to rebalance Kuwait’s international investment portfolio, said the KIO, which is a branch of the Kuwait Investment Authority.
Kuwait’s stake in BP has been reduced from 3.45 percent, with the sale amounting to 0.89-percent of BP’s issued share capital.
The deal meanwhile weighed on BP’s share price which fell by 0.88-percent to 645.25 pence in early London trading. The capital’s FTSE 100 index of leading shares fell 0.14 percent at 5,523.4 points. BP’s share value has risen by about 30 percent this year, fueled by soaring oil prices.
Meanwhile, BP said yesterday it would invest an estimated $1.0 billion (846 million euros) in its Texas City refinery in the United States, to avoid a repetition of an explosion in March that killed 15 people.
