BP investors push for clarity over ousting of chair, FT reports

June 9 (Reuters) - Top BP investors and former executives said they remained in the dark about the precise circumstances that led to the departure of former chair Albert Manifold, the Financial Times reported on Tuesday. 

"He was aggressively instituting change and that made the bureaucracy uncomfortable,” one leading investor told FT.

“Were people trying to get him out of the door? That is our and many other investors' concern,” the same unnamed investor said. 

A BP spokesperson told Reuters in an emailed statement that the company was firmly focused on cost discipline and delivering value for its shareholders.

BP's board ousted Manifold in May, expressing serious concerns about his governance standards, oversight and conduct, driving its share price ‌down as much as 10%.

Manifold said after his departure that not everyone at the oil major shared his priorities to cut costs and boost efficiency and acknowledged he may have "pushed hard" for change, but denied any misconduct.

Ian Tyler, who was appointed as interim chair, had said in May that the board and leadership team had deep conviction in the strategic direction they had laid out, and the company was moving at pace to deliver it.

The oil major had been unable to give full details of Manifold’s dismissal because it has a duty of care towards the staff who complained about the former chair, a person close to the company told FT. 

BP CEO Meg O'Neill, who took office in April, is reorganising BP into two main business units of downstream and upstream - bundling oil and gas production - in a move aimed at making BP simpler and more valuable. This change would start in June, Reuters reported last week. 

(Reporting by Anusha Shah in Bengaluru; Additional reporting by Angela Christy M and Chandni Shah in Bengaluru; Editing by Nivedita Bhattacharjee and Mrigank Dhaniwala)