Pon the Stock Exchange and attract capital! The energy sector, also called upon to take the turn of the ecological transition, seeks to separate the “black” from the “green”, fossil fuels from renewable energy sources. This trend works for oil companies and European electricity groups, all concerned with attracting investors to finance innovation and the development of very capital-intensive projects.
The Italian Eni will be the first to take the plunge, if we exclude the Danish Dong, renamed Orsted at the end of 2017 after having sold its assets oil & gas to focus solely on the production of zero-carbon electricity. In 2022, Eni plans to list its assets in renewables, electric vehicle charging, energy services and supply to individuals on the Milan Stock Exchange. Named Plenitude and valued at at least 10 billion euros, the company will be majority-owned by its parent company and should generate operating income well above its current profits.
Royal Dutch Shell is not there yet. At the end of 2021, by taking 0.5% of the capital of the Anglo-Dutch giant, Daniel Loeb and his activist fund Third Point showed their desire to separate booming low-carbon technologies from historical businesses (oil and gas extraction, refining, petrochemicals, etc.). More visibility and consistency would reassure investors, who apply a “conglomerate discount” to the century-old major, as to its competitors. The combined value of the two entities would exceed that of today’s company by tens of billions.
Pro-climate shareholders
Mr. Loeb received an icy welcome from Shell’s boss. Ben van Beurden ensures that only companies with his financial power and technical expertise can support the exit from fossil fuels. The CEO of TotalEnergies, Patrick Pouyanné, did not say otherwise: “If we changed the name of Total to TotalEnergies, it is not to separate the energies. »
The British BP does not want to hear about it either, against the analysis of its ex-boss (1995-2007). John Browne notes, in a column published in January by the American magazine Timethat low-carbon activities “are fast growing, less capital intensive and enjoy an investor premium”. Quite the opposite, according to him, of hydrocarbons.
Despite soaring oil prices, oil stocks are not following suit – evidence of continued market distrust of the future of a sector under attack from increasingly aggressive pro-climate activist shareholders. The companies that have frankly set their sights on the production of electricity without CO2 emissions2 show, they, a better performance on the stock market over five years: the Italian Enel (+ 148%), the Spanish Iberdrola (+ 99%) or the Portuguese EDP Renouvelables (+ 238%). Even “Hercule”, the aborted EDF reorganization project, planned to house clean energies in a “Green EDF” subsidiary, open to private capital.