Elliott Builds More Than $2.5 Billion Stake in Phillips 66

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Elliott Builds More Than $2.5 Billion Stake in Phillips 66

deals & business :: 2025-02-11 :: source - bloomberg

By Crystal Tse and Sing Yee Ong

(Bloomberg) -- Elliott Investment Management has built a more than $2.5 billion stake in oil refiner Phillips 66, and plans to push the company to sell or spin off its midstream business, according to a person familiar with the matter.

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The activist investor plans to seek a number of changes to simplify the oil refiner, and believes Phillips 66 has not fulfilled its commitment to further board changes, the person said, asking not to be named as the matter is not public.

The fund, controlled by billionaire Paul Singer, first disclosed a stake in Phillips 66 in 2023, revealing an investment of about $1 billion and saying the company could increase its stock price 75% by focusing more on refining and taking other measures.

Since then, Elliott has appeared to be working with the activist firm. One year ago, the investor and Phillips 66 announced the refiner would name Robert Pease, a former president of Shell Trading Co., to its board to provide more refining experience.

Phillips 66 has also been in the midst of a multi-year cost-cutting initiative targeting $3 billion in asset sales as a result of pressure from Elliott. In October, Phillips 66 said it had sold about $2.7 billion in assets since 2022.

As of September, Elliott controlled about 0.2% of Phillips 66’s outstanding shares. The larger Elliott stake in the refiner was first reported by the Wall Street Journal.

Phillips 66 did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

--With assistance from Joe Ryan.

(Updates with confirmation from Bloomberg source. An earlier version corrected spelling of Elliott in headline)