BP: shares fall after results, higher debt

(CercleFinance.com) - British oil major BP posted better-than-expected quarterly profit on Tuesday, but also warned against an "exceptionally challenging environment," sending its shares down more than 2%.


Underlying replacement cost profit for the first quarter was 800 million dollars, the company said, compared with 2.4 billion dollars in the first quarter of 2019.

The fall reflected lower oil prices, demand destruction in the downstream unit, disappointing results from Rosneft and a lower contribution from oil trading, the energy group noted.

Looking into the second quarter, BP said the "unprecedented" effects of demand destruction and price impacts that have been seen in the first quarter results are expected to continue throughout the quarter.

"Overall, we expect the market to take these results negatively, as it focuses on the large build in net debt for the quarter," analysts at Berenberg reacted.

Indeed, BP's net debt at the end of the quarter was 51.4 billion dollars, 6 billion dollars higher than the previous quarter.

The BP shares are currently down 2.2% on the London Stock Exchange.

Copyright (c) 2020 CercleFinance.com. All rights reserved.