In an interview with Bloomberg on Friday April 26, TotalEnergies CEO Patrick Pouyanné raised the idea of moving the company’s main listing to the New York Stock Exchange, considered more favorable to investments in hydrocarbons. Currently, most of the oil group’s stock market transactions take place on the Paris Stock Exchange, where it represents the fourth capitalization behind the luxury giants. “We are facing a situation in which European shareholders are sellers or holding steady, while American shareholders are buyers. So what would be most practical for American shareholders? Do they prefer stocks whose main listing is in New York or in Europe? I believe that when you ask the question, you have the answer», The businessman explained, in response to the American financial press agency.
The opportunity for him to put a tackle on European investors who demonstrate “chilliness» with regard to the group’s strategy, which consists of continuing to invest in fossil fuels to finance its transition to low-carbon energies. “In Europe, instead of supporting European companies that want to make this transition, even if it is difficult, they look at us and say: look, you continue to produce oil and gas“, he stressed.
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The majority of the group’s capital is American
This speech did not take long to provoke a reaction. Guest on BFMTV this Thursday morning, Bruno Le Maire, Minister of Economy and Finance, opposed this idea. “We need Total“, A “asset for France“, particularly in the event of a surge in oil or energy prices, the boss of Bercy justified himself. “It is important to keep Total, to keep Total’s head office in France, and for Total’s main listing to remain in France. (…) I will fight for that, because it is the best interest of the French“, he assured.
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What would that change? In reality, not much. “The former national flagship TotalEnergies continues its transformation into an essentially American major», summarizes Maroun Eddé, author of the work The Destruction of the State. A way of reminding us that TotalEnergies has not been French for a long time. Because European shareholders are now a minority in the group’s capital. The ESG and ISR ecological standards, which apply to Europeans, discourage them from investing in fossil fuels, and lead them to sell their shares in TotalEnergies.
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Highlighting European contradictions
At the same time, the Americans, much less self-conscious about the issue of hydrocarbons, remain buyers. Consequently, half of the capital of the so-called national flagship is now held across the Atlantic. The main shareholder is the American BlackRock (asset management), which holds 6.5% of the capital. “The departure of the CAC 40 would therefore not be a revolution in itself, but rather the confirmation of a revolution already underway but largely passed over in silence.», laments the essayist Maroun Eddé. And a symbol of the progressive loss of the French presence in strategic sectors.
Next step: moving the group’s head office outside of France? If Patrick Pouyanné argued the opposite, the interest in keeping him in France could now appear weak, or even zero. But beware of the announcement effects, because this exit of the manager could not be due to chance: last week, Bruno Le Maire announced the implementation of a retroactive tax on share buybacks from this year, practical widely practiced by TotalEnergies. Last year, the oil giant bought back 8.2 billion euros of shares, or 27% of all share buybacks carried out by French companies. Furthermore, Patrick Pouyanné was heard last Monday by a senatorial commission led by the ecologist Yannick Jadot. For four months, this commission has aimed to identify the means mobilized by TotalEnergies to respect its climate commitments.
