France’s economy grows faster than forecast; BP profits beat expectations – business live | Business

Campaign groups are angered by BP’s latest multi-billion dollar profits.

Global Witness has calculated that BP had paid “a staggering” £11.7bn to shareholders since June 2023 – when the world began a 12-month stint of temperatures 1.5C above the pre-fossil fuel era.

After BP reported an underlying profit of $2.76bn this morning, Alice Harrison, head of Fossil Fuel Campaigns at Global Witness, says:

“As the world faces record-breaking heat, most of us are desperate to see urgent action on the climate crisis. Unfortunately, it’s clear that BP couldn’t care less. While millions of us struggle with high temperatures and high bills, BP are raking in billions of profits, paying out massive dividends, and doubling down on dirty new oil and gas projects.

Big oil companies like BP know their fossil fuel products are behind more deadly heatwaves, storms, and wildfires around the world, but instead of investing in clean energy, they are continuing to profit from people’s misery.

Fossil fuel companies like BP are turning a blind eye to climate breakdown, so now governments must act. Rather than propping up the climate-wrecking fossil fuel industry, we need them to make polluters pay for the damage they have already caused, and steer us towards a cleaner, greener future.”

Warm This Winter spokesperson Fiona Waters points out that BP has recently rowed back on some of its green energy plans:

“BP’s obscene profits today and the fact they have made £38.4bn since the start of the energy crisis shows they’re not interested in turning off their oil and gas cash cow. They have rolled-back on their green pledges that would mean lower bills, an end to energy price shocks and would also help save the planet.”

Chiara Liguori, Oxfam GB’s Senior Climate Justice Policy Advisor, says low-income countries desperately need help to handle the impact of the climate crisis:

“It is inexcusable that BP, one of the world’s most polluting and profitable fossil fuel companies, continues to rake in billions of pounds while low-income countries are in urgent need of funds to tackle the devastating impacts of the climate crisis despite doing the least to cause it.

“The world can no longer afford fossil fuel companies putting short-term profits above people and planet. The costs of inaction are already here with deadly heat waves, wildfires, flooding and drought but it is people living in poverty who are left paying the highest price.

WPP appoints former BT boss Philip Jansen as its new chair

Mark Sweney

Philip Jansen, the former chief executive of BT, has been appointed as the new chairman of advertising giant WPP.

Jansen, who stood down as chief executive of BT in February after almost five years in the role, will join the board of the FTSE-listed WPP in September and formally take over as chair from January.

“Philip brings a valuable blend of experience, from leading technology and consumer goods companies to transforming large, complex organisations and creating significant value for shareholders,” said Angela Ahrendts, senior independent director at WPP.

Jansen, who began his career at Gillette to Ariel maker Procter and Gamble before moving into marketing director roles at Dunlop Slazenger and Telewest, led a BT turnaround strategy that included cutting 55,000 jobs by 2030 and investing £15bn in the nationwide roll out of full fibre broadband and 5G mobile networks.

Earlier this month, Jansen, who took home a bumper £3.7m in pay and bonuses in his lat year at the telecoms company, was linked with a private equity backed takeover bid of British pest control firm Rentokil.

“Technology is changing the face of commerce, media and communications, and I am very excited to join a company at the forefront of this change,” said Jansen.

In the energy sector, BP has lifted its dividend after beating profit forecasts for the last quarter.

BP has reported an underlying profit of $2.756bn for the second quarter of the financial year, up from $2.589bn in the same quarter in 2023, and slightly higher than the $2.723bn it earned in Q1.

That beat analyst expectations of $2.6bn.

BP said the profit was due to “an average” performance in gas marketing and trading, lower refining margins, stronger fuels margins and “lower taxation”.

It adds:

The underlying effective tax rate (ETR)* in the quarter was 33% which reflects the impact of the reassessment of the recognition of deferred tax assets.

BP is raising its dividend to eight cents per share, up from 7.27/share.

The oil giant has also announced another share buyback, worth $1.75bn, for the last quarter, as it continues to use spare cash to buy back equity.

Kate Thomson, BP’s chief financial officer, says:

We generated strong operating cash flow in the quarter, which helped reduce net debt to $22.6 billion.

Our decision to increase our dividend by 10%, and extend our buyback programme commitment to 4Q 2024, reflects the confidence we have in our performance and outlook for cash generation.

We are maintaining a disciplined financial frame and remain committed to growing value and returns for bp.

Good morning, and welcome to our rolling coverage of business, the financial markets and the world economy.

It’s eurozone GDP day, when we learn how the countries which share the single currency are faring economically.

And the early news is that France’s economic growth was stronger than expected in the second quarter of this year.

French GDP expanded by 0.3% in the April-June quarter, new data from statistics body INSEE shows, beating expectations for 0.2% growth.

That matches the 0.3% growth recorded across the eurozone’s second-largest economy in the first quarter of the year.

It suggests France’s economy was stronger than expected this spring – before Emmanuel Macron stunned Europe by calling snap parliamentary elections last month.

INSEE reports that domestic demand “picked up slightly”, and added to growth. There was also a “slight rebound” in investment (or gross fixed capital formation).

Household consumption was stable in the quarter, while foreign trade also made a positive contribution to growth.

Exports grew by 0.6%, driven by a rise in transport equipment – which INSEE attributes to the “delivery of a new ship”.

INSEE has previously predicted that the Olympic Games’ will lift France’s economic growth in the third quarter of this year

Economists predict that the wider eurozone also grew in the last quarter, by an estimated 0.2%. We’ll find out if they’re right at 10am, after getting growth figures from Italy, Spain and Germany too.

The agenda

• 8am BST: Spain’s Q2 2024 GDP report

• 9am BST: Germany’s Q2 2024 GDP report

• 9am BST: Italy’s Q2 2024 GDP report

• 10am BST: Eurozone GDP report for Q2 2024

• 1pm BST: Germany’s inflation rate for July

• 2pm BST: US house price index for May

• 3pm BST: US consumer confidence index for July