Elliott’s BP pressure campaign

One scoop to start: Brandon Lutnick, son of US commerce secretary Howard Lutnick, is partnering with SoftBank, Tether and Bitfinex to capitalise on a cryptocurrency revival under US President Donald Trump.

And another thing: Elon Musk said he would “significantly” reduce his US government role from next month and refocus his attention on Tesla, after the carmaker’s profits cratered in the past three months.

In today’s newsletter:

Elliott turns up the heat on BP

BP has acquired an unfortunate nickname in the oil sector.

“In the industry, BP stands for banana peel,” one former BP contractor told the FT, “because they slip up so often”.

The company spent years moving away from its established oil and gas business, only to shift back after activist investor Elliott Management built up a stake and pushed for change.

At BP’s investor day in February, chief executive Murray Auchincloss promised a “fundamental reset” of BP’s strategy. He said the company would cut spending on green energy by 70 per cent and sell $20bn of assets in the next two years.

Yesterday, Elliott gave its verdict on the new plan, and it isn’t happy.

The US-based hedge fund disclosed it had increased its stake in the company to more than 5 per cent — which puts its holding on a par with exchange traded fund giant Vanguard.

“Murray has taken 18 months to come up with a three-year plan that’s neither ambitious nor urgent,” said a person familiar with Elliott’s thinking.

The hedge fund wants the oil major to increase its free cash flow to $20bn by 2027 — a 40 per cent increase on the target implied in February, when BP first revealed its pivot away from renewables.

The hedge fund thinks that can be achieved by cutting oil and gas spending, as well as selling BP’s solar and offshore wind power businesses.

It’s a far cry from the heady days of 2019, when then-chair Helge Lund declared the company would “reimagine energy for people and our planet”.

A quarter of BP shareholders voted against Lund’s re-election at the company’s annual meeting last week — the biggest rebellion against a FTSE 100 chair in five years.

Lund had already said he would step down, but the vote was indicative of the dismay among investors, who have seen their company’s share price plummet: BP is now worth just over a third of rival Shell.

Epstein’s power broker

The names of several prominent and well-known figures have come up during Jes Staley’s courtroom battle against UK regulators — not least Prince Andrew and former US Treasury secretary Lawrence Summers.

But one name may have been unfamiliar to DD readers: Ian Osborne. Despite running in some of the finance and political world’s most elite circles over the past decade, he has kept a low profile. 

Those who followed the boom in special purpose acquisition companies (or Spacs) may remember him as the other half of Chamath Palihapitiya’s series of Social Capital Hedosophia Spacs. But Osborne is better known as a fixer for the rich and powerful with a Rolodex that would be the envy of many financiers. 

Except perhaps for one person: Jeffrey Epstein. A court case in London, filed by Staley against the Financial Conduct Authority, heard last month how the late convicted paedophile enlisted Osborne’s help to try to get Staley installed as Barclays chief executive in 2012.

In emails dubbed “Project Jes”, Epstein and Osborne concocted a plan they hoped would land Staley the top job at the British bank three years before he was ultimately tapped for the role. It included lobbying political figures in the UK and Barclays board members. 

Barclays and Staley, who resigned from the bank in 2021 following the FCA’s investigation into his relationship with Epstein, have denied any knowledge of the plan.

Osborne is known as the ultimate power broker in the world of finance — with close connections to a roster of billionaires that include Michael Bloomberg, Yuri Milner and Mark Zuckerberg. He has also hosted some of the most in-demand parties at major conferences like Davos and private equity get-together SuperReturn.

It’s perhaps little surprise that Epstein wanted Osborne’s help with Staley’s candidacy for the chief executive role.

Osborne’s ability to connect the rich and powerful is reminiscent of his own — an ability that Staley described as “unique” in court.

Apollo and Citi’s $25bn lending venture takes off

It was one of the worst kept secrets in the buyout world: Boeing was selling a software unit and private equity bidders were circling. So too, was the $1.6tn private credit industry.

Apollo Global Management celebrated on Tuesday when Thoma Bravo, which won the near $11bn bidding war for the Boeing unit, signed its debt commitment papers.

Apollo is leading a roughly $4bn loan to fund the takeover, inching ahead of rivals who had put forward competing loans, the FT scooped on Tuesday.

The deal was a big win for a partnership Apollo has with Citigroup, in which the mega lender can offer private credit options to corporate groups.

From the outset of Boeing’s sale efforts, which was advised by Citi, the bank offered PE buyers staple financing from Apollo.

That provided would-be buyers with sturdy financing in fragile markets, which were rattled during the months-long sale process with US President Donald Trump announcing his tariff war.

Boeing’s Jeppesen unit, which sells data and software products tied to booming commercial aviation, proved immune to trade war fears and benefited from the hordes of cash private equity and credit groups sit on.

Lenders like Apollo and Blackstone are in an intense race to put that dry powder to work, by loaning out hundreds of billions in cash. The Jeppesen financing will carry an interest rate 4.75 percentage points above the floating rate benchmark — or roughly 9 per cent.

Competition to lend was so intense that in the weeks before the deal was signed, it appeared as if Apollo might lose its position as the agent and lead on the loan to Blackstone, people briefed on the matter said. In the end, the two groups are lending the same amount, and have been joined by Ares, Blue Owl, KKR and JPMorgan’s private credit venture.

For its part, Thoma Bravo was sitting on about $40bn of unspent cash for PE deals, sources told the FT, allowing the software-focused PE group to “reach” to beat out bidders including TPG and Francisco Partners.

Thoma will be investing most of a $6bn-plus equity cheque from its two newest funds and arranging minimal co-investments, unlike its wave of deals in 2021. It’s a further sign that politically fraught times have caused large pensions to step back from writing big, direct cheques.

Job moves

OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman is stepping down as chair of Oklo to avoid a conflict of interest ahead of talks between his company and the nuclear start-up. Altman will be replaced by Jacob DeWitte, the group’s chief executive and co-founder.

Skadden has hired Michael Reed as a partner in its financial institutions group, where he will advise on deals and capital markets transactions.

Milbank has named Alex Meirowitz as a partner in the firm’s real estate group in New York. He joins from Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.

26North has hired Alexandre Ekierman as a managing director in its direct lending team. Ekierman previously worked as a principal at HIG Capital and a director in KKR’s credit solutions group.

Smart reads

Harvard’s options Harvard is staring down a torrent of cuts as it faces off against the Trump administration. Lex explores how the university might weather the storm.

No more middle men Dutch market maker Optiver is foregoing the brokers who usually sit in the middle of trades and dealing directly with buyside investors, Bloomberg writes.

The Soros scion George Soros’ son Alex has taken over his father’s $20bn philanthropic empire. But the Democratic megadonor so far lacks a vision for how to wield his newfound influence, writes New York Magazine in a sweeping profile.

News round-up

Instagram’s co-founder testifies Mark Zuckerberg withheld resources (FT)

UniCredit says Banco BPM deal in limbo after Italy imposes conditions (FT)

Bertelsmann chief seeks to revive €3.6bn French TV merger (FT)

British Steel halts plan to axe 2,700 jobs (FT)

Kuwait’s sovereign wealth fund sues over City of London skyscraper (FT)

Roche to spend $50bn on US manufacturing and R&D (FT)

New York pension funds put asset managers on notice over climate plans (FT)