ARCO Chief Receives $27.6M BP Pay-Off
Mike Bowlin, chief executive of the U.S. oil major Atlantic Richfield Co. will reportedly receive a $27.6 million severance payoff when his company is acquired by BP Amoco Plc.
Texaco's Profits Drop; ARCO's Surge
Texaco Inc., the nation's fourth largest oil company, reported that second quarter income dropped 13 percent as low refinery profits abroad were only partially offset by stronger crude oil prices. Texaco, which broke off merger discussions with Chevron Corp., slipped past analysts' expectations with second quarter income of $286 million before special items. In the same period last year, Texaco reported income before special items of $335 million. But Texaco's results were overshadowed by a strong showing from nation's fifth largest oil company, Atlantic Richfield Co. (ARCO), which is being acquired by oil giant BP Amoco Plc. Benefiting from a combination of stronger crude oil and California gasoline prices, ARCO said its second quarter income rose 37 percent from a year ago.
ARCO Shareholders Approve BP Amoco Takeover Bid
Giant oil companies are going to be the sole survivors in an increasingly competitive market, the chairman of Atlantic Richfield told stockholders Aug. 30 as they approved a takeover bid. Shareholders of Los Angeles-based ARCO, the seventh- largest U.S. oil company, agreed to a sale of the company to BP Amoco Plc, in a $29 billion stock swap that creates the largest private-sector oil producer in the world. Chairman and Chief Executive Mike Bowlin told a crowd of more than 400 shareholders, mostly retirees of ARCO, that tighter competition and volatile industry conditions spurred the proposed sale. "Two events in 1998 caused the board to reevaluate the future of the company and that was the consolidation of the market and crude oil prices at their lowest levels in...years," he said.
