![Opinion | TotalEnergies and the fog of war for the climate Opinion | TotalEnergies and the fog of war for the climate](https://media.lesechos.com/api/v1/images/view/66432114af4b1756606daa9a/1280x720/0110965822300-web-tete.jpg)
By Michael Berry (Founder of the Co-director of the Phénix large companies of the future chair (Mines Paris PSL))Christophe Deshayes (Co-director of the Phénix chair for large companies of the future (Mines Paris PSL))
TotalEnergies, which hoped to celebrate its centenary by sponsoring Paris 2024, had to give up. A frustration which is added for the group to the blockades of activists in front of its AGMs, to the trials for climate inaction, to the recurring activism of small French investment funds, to the calls for nationalization… American institutional shareholders have benefited from this disenchantment to strengthen oneself in capital. With 48% of voting rights, they asked to move the company’s main listing location from the Paris Stock Exchange to that of New York. It must be said that oil companies listed in the United States are twice as valued. Activist operations do have a cost for European oil companies!
Is the principal listing in New York so serious? The 2019 Pacte law sought to protect the idea that companies are not guided solely by the interests of shareholders. But this French law has no influence in the United States. If American institutional investors obtain this transfer of listing, they will have more influence on the company’s strategy, perhaps to the point of obtaining a transfer of its head office, the only act which will make it an American company in the eyes of the markets. . This is certainly not current, but what will it be in a few years when a successor to Patrick Pouyanné is chosen? The reality of “shareholder democracy” requires us to realistically consider the balance of power and to understand that its transition strategy could be called into question.