BP leaves rivals standing

LORD (John) Browne resisted the temptation to crow over the discomfort of long-standing rival Shell as BP unveiled record-breaking first quarter figures.

Shell is too easy a target. It is not often that one of Britain's blue-chip companies is required to dismiss three of its top executives, delay release of its annual report and become the subject of regulatory inquiries on both sides of the Atlantic.

It has been widely reported that the Securities & Exchange Commission in the United States is making all the running in turning over Shell's affairs. But it is my understanding that the SEC is now working in close co-operation with the Financial Services Authority, which is carrying out its own far-reaching investigation.

This is not to say that reporting oil reserves is necessarily a precise exercise. Browne and his chief financial officer Byron Grote have acknowledged as much, noting that the reserve figures which appear in BP's annual report could yet be different from those given to the SEC. But the differences in BP's case will be insignificant, not the whopping 20%-plus over-reported at Shell.

Where BP may feel vulnerable after its bumper first-quarter is in the speed of profits accumulation, calculated at £335 per second, a red rag to the nation's motorists.

But we should not get too hysterical about one of the country's best-performing global firms doing so well. BP has already explained that any profits it makes as a result of the oil price being more than $20 a barrel will be returned to shareholders through buybacks of its own shares.

Since most motorists are also indirect investors in BP through insurance policies, pensions and Isas, and it is the government that creams off the large part of the cost of a litre of petrol, no one should become too agitated.

Browne's method of management at BP is unrelenting change. The first quarter is no different on this front. A chunk of the petrochemicals businesses - a management distraction, are to be floated - yielding a hefty oneoff gain.

There are also indications that Russia, despite the latest rumbles from rival Yukos, is proving a useful investment, with the TNK-BP joint venture making a positive contribution.

Shell cannot even find the reforming zeal to unify its British and Dutch management and share quotations under one umbrella. While this injured giant limps along, BP is sprinting like a gazelle.

Store victory

THE Londis takeover by Irish food group Musgrave is a saga with a happy ending.

Efforts by Londis executives to fill their own boots at the expense of 1,919 shopkeepers - who keep their stores open all hours - have been roundly defeated. As a result the shopkeepers are in line for a £31,266 windfall, three times what they would have received under the original deal.

It is a tale with several heroes. These include the bidders who lost out, the Big Food Group and the Co-op. They helped to draw attention to the inequities of Musgrave's original offer, which would have handed 50% of the proceeds of the bid to the closely-knit executive group alone.

Advisers KPMG Corporate Finance guided confused shopkeepers through the jungle that is the City.

We also claim a small share of the credit for exposing the injustice of an original deal that would have deprived so many small shopkeepers of their due.

The cash, which will be spread over a year, could not come at a better time. Britain's corner shops find themselves up against increasingly formidable foes in the big supermarket groups like Tesco.

They can invest in the kind of refrigeration and display that are often beyond their independent rivals. Londis shopkeepers will now have cash to invest in their businesses, if they so choose.

It would be nice to think that the supermarket giants - busy closing down convenient Post Office counters to make more selling space - are not having it all their own way.

ONE of the great puzzles is why so often our biggest companies chose to report final results on the same day. Argos stores group GUS decided almost a year ago that it would unveil its final figures on 25 May and informed the appropriate authorities.

Then months later along came M&S - which could well make less profits than GUS - and decided to have its results conference the same day. Hurried conversations were held between the two companies with M&S declining the invitation to select another day. And the reason?

It was the only day that chairman Luc Vandevelde was available. Must be tricky when you are juggling so much.