This BBC podcast is supported by ads outside the UK.
I've spent the last three decades trying to better understand money across the boardroom, the newsroom and the trading floor.
That's longer than most podcast hosts have been alive.
But even I've got questions.
Join me, Meryn Subset-Webb, every week for my show Meryn Talks Money from Bloomberg Podcasts, where I have in-depth conversations with fund managers, strategists and experts about how markets really work.
And join me for a separate episode where I answer listener questions on how to make those markets work for you.
Follow Maren Talks Money on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or wherever you listen.
The oil giant BP is under pressure.
It's World Business Express from the BBC World Service.
I'm Leanna Byrne.
Talk about a major celebrity exit in the music industry and Spotify wraps its Q4 with good numbers.
So BP's profits have fallen after last year's drop in oil prices.
The company says it's responding by cutting costs, suspending its share buybacks and reining in spending to strengthen its finances.
But shareholders are split.
Some say BP went too far into green energy.
Others say it's focused too much on oil, just as prices fell.
Earlier, I spoke to Nick Mazan, who leads oil and gas strategy at ACCR, a shareholder advocacy and research organisation.
I think it's fair to look back at some of BP's investments into renewables and say those haven't been good investments for BP and its shareholders.
But I think what's happening from BP's perspective is that they appear to be creating a narrative around that being the only part of the problem and that being the only reason for their underperformance relative to peers over the past few years or so.
And when we look back at the company's impairments, what we see is that there's a similar ratio of impairments on the upstream business as there is on the renewables business.
So 75 of its impairments and losses associated with disposals have been associated with its oil and gas investments over the past five years.
But there's a lot of noise about the fact that they've lost a lot of money on renewables.
So do you think BP really believes its oil and gas strategy will actually pay off?
Or is it buying time in some way?
Yeah, it's a good question.
I think they probably are buying time.
I think there's a little bit of an existential crisis for BP in many ways.
Like when you say that you aren't a good owner of renewables assets and they've said that they've gone too fast, too far too fast as it relates to their renewables business.
You really have to sort of sell a growth story to your investors.
And so if you're cutting off the opportunity for investing in clean energy, considering everything that we've said already related to them not being good owners of those assets, then they want to sell their story to investors that there is growth potential in the oil and gas business.
And that just might not be the case.
That is a really important point.
A lot of people listening might have their pension or some of their pension money in BP or other oil and gas companies around the world.
So how do you think either BP or other oil and gas companies, they need to proceed in the future?
Yeah, so I think that that case of returning cash to shareholders and those guaranteed returns for shareholders and pensioners is really important.
Distributions in the form of buybacks and dividends has always been an important part of the picture for pensioners.
And so ensuring that those are guaranteed is really important and a really important part of the value proposition for BP and other oil and gas companies.
And what we've seen from other oil and gas companies during earnings season over the past weeks or so is that Shell Exxon, Chevron have maintained their buybacks program and it's BP that's been cutting it at the same time.
And so we see this divergence in strategies.
BP is obviously under a lot of pressure from a debt perspective and that's the reason that they're putting forward, But we think there's a stronger rationale for the company to be cutting its investments into oil and gas rather than cutting the distributions to shareholders and pensioners.
That was Nick Mazan from ACC Orr.
Now with me, Fiona Sincotta, Senior Market Analyst for Citi Index.
Fiona, from a market point of view, how damaging is this decision to suspend share buybacks?
Well, I mean.
The fact that the share price is down 7 today, I think reflects how disappointed investors are.
And as mentioned, it leaves the company as an outlier among other major competitors.
And just last week Shell said that it would continue to spend 35 billion a quarter on repurchasing shares.
So, investors are just going to turn their attention to other rivals now.
There you go, Fiona.
Investors just want their money.
That's okay.
Fair enough.
Fiona stay right there.
Singer Chapel Rowan says she's left the talent agency led by Casey Wasserman, whose name appears in the Epstein files.
Wasserman says he regrets historic emails with Ghislaine Maxwell and has not been accused of wrongdoing.
The move has reignited questions about accountability and reputational risk in the music business and whether artists now have more power to walk away from major industry players.
Helen Brown is a music journalist who told me it's highly unusual for a musician to break from a major agency.
The music industry is famous for not having had its Me Too moment because artists are so tightly locked into these contracts.
And musicians struggle compared to actors and other kind of artists in terms of money.
They just don't get as much money.
So who is Casey Wasserman?
Who else does he represent?
Is he a big cheese in the music industry?
Yes, Casey Wasserman is the grandson of the last great Hollywood media mogul, Lou Wasserman, with whom he had breakfast every Saturday and Sunday throughout his childhood.
Casey starts out as a sports agent in the late 90s, moves into music in the 2000s.
And he represents I mean one third of the acts who perform at Coachella are under the Wasserman agency.
Team Wass, I think they're called.
So it'd be people like Coldplay, Ed Sheeran, Ray, massive artists.
Yeah, they are huge names.
So this is quite significant then.
Does this signal a shift in what musicians now expect from businesses that represent them the people that represent them in terms of ethics and accountability?
Yes, it really does.
I mean, we saw the break with Taylor Swift and Justin Bieber leaving someone like Scooter Braun.
Now, that was to retain the rights to their own music.
To some extent, that is about their own credibility, their own life philosophy.
But it looks like a whole slew of artists are looking to leave the Wasserman agency.
And in fact, they've taken their roster down from the internet.
So we can't check on that at the moment.
That was music journalist Helen Brown.
Cuba has warned international airlines that jet fuel will no longer be available on the island, as it faces a worsening fuel crisis.
The US has imposed what's in effect a blockade on Cuba by threatening tariffs on any country supplying it with oil.
The aviation fuel restrictions will impact tourism, on which Cuba is heavily reliant.
The French President, Emmanuel Macron, says Europe must urgently establish itself as a world power or risk being swept aside by the US and China.
He's warned that the EU faces blatant aggression, threats and intimidation from Washington.
Our Paris correspondent Hugh Schofield has been explaining.
It's time, he's saying, to realize that in the world, if it wants to survive, it's got to do so the much more assertive way against the threats now of America, unstable, as he calls it, and China, a commercial tsunami, as he calls it, which is flooding us with its goods.
So, yes, more of the same, but more urgent, more shrill.
Hugh Schofield there.
Spotify's shares are up after the music streaming service added a record number of users and tripled its profits.
Fiona Sincotta is still with me.
Fiona, those are some good numbers.
Some really impressive numbers here.
And we've seen the share price jump 16, as earnings and revenue have beaten expectations thanks to robust user growth and improved profitability.
So monthly users reached 751 million.
That's beating forecasts and up 11%.
There you go.
A good wrap for them.
Another one for you, Coca-Cola.
Mixed results there, but then the demand for its drinks is actually showing signs of improvement.
Yeah, it's interesting Coca-Cola, because I mean, the outlook for this year was actually slightly weaker than expected.
And this is sort of happening, as the company is looking to win over more shoppers by expanding its sort of non-sugary drink portfolio.
So customers are looking to move away from that traditional full calorie soft drink to healthier options.
So it's a transition period.
It is.
It is for us all.
Fiona Sincotta from City Index.
Thank you so much for joining us.
And later this week, our colleagues from Business Daily, from the BBC World Service, will be looking in depth at what is happening in Venezuela right now, its oil sector and the future for the country's economy since the removal of Nicolás Maduro.
Are there any questions you want answering about what's happening in the country?
We'll put them to presenter Rahul Tandon and our expert reporter Gideon Long.
Send your questions and comments to businessdaily at bbc.co.uk or get in touch on WhatsApp.
Our number is 0044 330 678.
And that's it from World Business Express.
I'm Leanna Byrne.
Thanks for listening.
I've spent the last three decades trying to better understand money across the boardroom, the newsroom and the trading floor.
That's longer than most podcast hosts have been alive.
But even I've got questions.
Join me, Maren Subset-Webb, every week for my show Maren Talks Money from Bloomberg Podcasts, where I have in-depth conversations with fund managers, strategists and experts about how markets really work.
And join me for a separate episode where I answer listener questions on how to make those markets work for you.
Follow Merrin Talks Money on Apple Podcasts, Spotify or wherever you listen.
