2024-05-02 11:01:31
A few days ago in an interview with Bloomberg, Patrick Pouyanné, the boss of TotalEnergies, pulled out a grenade. He announced that the flagship of the CAC40 could see its main listing on Wall Street in New York instead of Paris. “It’s not a question of emotion. It’s a matter of business.” Because currently, North American shareholders hold nearly 50% of the company’s capital.
“We are faced with a situation where European shareholders are selling or maintaining their stake, and where American shareholders are buying,” explained the boss of the oil giant. Since 2012, the share of North American institutional shareholding has increased from 33% to 48% (including 47% for the United States) in 2023 while that of Europe (excluding the United Kingdom) has increased from 45%. at 34% over the same period.
For the company, this listing in New York would probably allow it to improve its valuation while remaining as close as possible to the evolution of its shareholder base. Even if TotalEnergies should continue to reflect on this hypothesis until the start of the school year in September, it has caused a shock wave within the executive.
“We must offer it the means to develop”
Bruno Le Maire mentioned this possibility on BFM TV as being a “serious” decision on the part of the French group. “We need Total,” he explained, adding: “It is an asset for France.” “It is important to keep the head office in France” while ensuring that it was there “to ensure that this does not happen”. Sunday evening, Bruno Le Maire, however, recognized that the oil group’s observation was “lucid”. “If we want Total’s stock market headquarters to remain in Europe, we must offer it the means to develop,” added Bruno Le Maire.
However, the government’s means to prevent such an eventuality are limited. One of the avenues would perhaps be to review the copy on the financial labels put in place for years to encourage investors to “green” their investments in France and Europe.
Some labels have the particularity of completely excluding companies that invest in hydrocarbons. Therefore, Total is particularly targeted. Except that Total is one of the companies that invests the most in renewable energies with more than 5 billion per year. Consequence: if European investors disengage from Total, Americans on the contrary see it as a company that is much more virtuous for the environment than the American oil giants and do not hesitate to invest.
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