Recently, a news from the British "Times" shocked the world's energy and chemical industry: Following the layoff of 10,000 employees, the world's old petrochemical industry giant, BP, plans to sell its long-standing international headquarters building.
According to reports, BP plans to sell the headquarters building in St James's Square in central London, then lease it back from the new owners for up to two years, after which it will completely move out.
BP bought the building for 117 million pounds in 2001, and the current price may exceed 300 million pounds.
Due to the new coronavirus pandemic, BP, like other employers, has also begun to change its working methods, and many employees have begun to work from home. Its CEO Bernard Looney also said before that the company will prefer a "hybrid office approach," which includes a combination of home office and office work.
Currently, BP has hired Jones Lang LaSalle as a consultant. After withdrawing from St James's Square, BP will establish a smaller headquarters in London. At the same time, BP also sold office space in Houston, Texas, USA and Sunbury, UK for long-term leaseback.
It is worth noting that this is not the first time that BP has sold assets after the outbreak. At the end of June this year, the company announced that it would sell all its chemical assets to INEOS for US$5 billion.
In June, BP also announced that in response to the impact of the new crown epidemic on the company, it plans to lay off approximately 10,000 employees worldwide, equivalent to 15% of the total number of employees. Currently, BP has 6,500 office staff in the UK.
In fact, since the outbreak of the epidemic, as the situation in the oil and gas industry has continued to deteriorate, oil companies have adopted measures such as layoffs, asset sales, expenditure cuts, and dividend reductions to "survive their arms". There are also many companies that directly declare bankruptcy.
BP’s competitor, Chevron, previously announced that it plans to reduce the number of global employees by 10% to 15% this year;
Exxon Mobil plans to cut spending this year by 30%;
In May of this year, Shell decided to cut its dividend, which was its first dividend cut since the 1940s.
At the end of June this year, the US shale gas giant Chesapeake officially declared bankruptcy. This is another veteran shale oil and gas company that collapsed after the US Whiting Oil Company declared bankruptcy in April this year.
In early August, BP announced a net loss of $16.8 billion in the second quarter and announced that it would cut its dividend by half, which is the first dividend cut in 10 years.
BP said that the second quarter results included a one-time expense of 10.9 billion US dollars, mainly due to the plunge in oil prices and write down the value of multiple projects. After deducting one-off items, the company's basic loss after resetting in the second quarter was $6.7 billion, which was far lower than the $2.8 billion profit in the same period last year.
