BP Bloody Piss-poor - British pensioners will pick up the bill for fund being set up..

[HipChick]

It's the Daily Whine, but classic example of how Conversative leaning British papers are spinning this..

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1287222/BP-oil-spill-British-pensioners-pick-BP-compensation-fund.html

President Obama bullied the company into depositing £13.5billion into a fund to settle compensation claims for the calamitous Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
After a face-to-face showdown with the President at the White House, BP chairman Carl-Henric Svanberg revealed the payment meant the oil giant would be forced to suspend dividends to its shareholders until at least next year.
The news sent BP shares plunging to a 14-year low of £3.37, and is a major blow for Britain's pension funds, which rely on BP's dividend income to provide £1 in every £6 they receive each year.

BP's backdown came as David Cameron finally broke his controversial silence over Mr Obama's attacks on the company. The Prime Minister revealed he told President Obama not to 'go after' BP 'for the sake of it'. Yesterday's dramatic capitulation came as U.S. officials and lawmakers escalated the ugly rhetoric over the disaster.

Vietnamese-born Congressman Joseph Cao went so far as to suggest that the only honourable way for BP bosses to atone for the environmental crisis was to commit suicide.
'In the Asian culture we do things differently,' he said. 'During the samurai days, we'd just give you a knife and ask you to commit hara-kiri.' Yesterday's four-hour meeting ended with the company capitulating to Mr Obama's rescue-fund ultimatum and offering an apology to the American people. Mr Svanberg and chief executive Tony Hayward were told that either they agreed to set up the multi-billion pound escrow account - or the Americans would rush through laws to force them.

Announcing the freeze on dividends, Mr Svanberg tried to smooth over troubled waters, saying BP and the U.S. government were 'fully aligned' in handling the crisis.
He said: 'We made it clear to the President that words are not enough. We understand that we will and we should be judged by our actions.'
BP has cancelled the first-quarter payment that was due on June 21. Mr Svanberg said the second and third quarter dividends would be suspended - a major blow for Britain's pension funds.
The move will also hit American investors. While 40 per cent of BP's major shareholders are in Britain, Americans have a 39 per cent stake in the multi-national company.
BP also reportedly has twice as many American as British employees.
Happy that he had achieved his goal in reaching agreement on the escrow fund, Mr Obama offered his first words of support for BP after weeks of ferocious criticism that has helped slash the company's market value in half.
Earlier in the day, Sir Richard Branson denounced Mr Obama's attacks on BP.
The Virgin Atlantic president accused Mr Obama of 'unseemly behaviour' in repeatedly 'kicking a company while it was on its knees'. Sir Richard is one of the most senior businessmen to go on the offensive over Mr Obama's series of broadsides against BP and Mr Hayward

[Ruby the Liberal]

1. If they want to lay blame, they need to focus on the fund manager(s) that

going heavy on oil was a good decision.

[alstephenson]

2. I agree. Perhaps they shouldn't have invested in a company...

with so little regard for the safety of its workers and the environment.

[HooptieWagon]

7. True. Maybe the British pension funds should also sue BP (fraud, maybe?). n/t

[Mimosa]

3. Branson 's whine 'kicking the company while it's on it's knees' is sickmaking

But not as sickmaking as what the oil fumes may do to the people on the Gulf Coast.

http://petersantilli.com/2010/06/13/toxic-bp-oil-spill-fumes-will-cause-death-cancer/

[flamingdem]

4. 40% owned by British and 39% by Americans.. sooo nt

[Laelth]

5. Interesting. Thanks for posting. n/t

:dem:

-Laelth

[Make7]

6. Who could have imagined that stock prices could go down and dividends decreased?

They told me there was absolutely no risk when I bought these shares....