03 December 2014, News Wires – British supermajor BP’s shares have risen by more than 4% in London amid market rumours of a takeover bid from Anglo-Dutch supermajor Shell.
A spokesperson for Shell told Upstream the company was not making any comment on the issue.
A spokesperson for BP told Upstream it was “making no comment on any rumours”.
The BP spokesperson also would not comment when asked if the company knew of any possible reason for Tuesday’s share price increase.
BP’s shares were trading up 4.8% at £4.34 on London’s main market by 1600 GMT, while Shell was up 3.8% at £22.01.
Several traders who spoke to Reuters cited market talk of a takeover bid from Shell, according to the wire service.
“BP shares have rallied on the back of enthusiastic buying on talk of Shell’s interest in the company,” IG analyst Chris Beauchamp was quoted by the wire service as saying.
“But it seems difficult to believe that Shell would make such a big acquisition at this difficult time for the oil market,” he added.
Others were quick to laugh off the prospect of such a deal.
Mitch Fraser-Jones of Woodford Investment Management tweeted: “Aha, rumours Shell to buy BP? That will obscure the impact of a falling oil price for a while.”
– Upstream