(Bloomberg) -- TotalEnergies SE Chief Executive Officer Patrick Pouyanne said the French energy giant is still working on a plan to list shares in New York, on top of Paris and other European exchanges, in a bid to lure more US investors.
The company’s plan to turn its American depositary receipts into ordinary shares is “work in progress,” Pouyanne said during the company’s annual investor day in New York Wednesday. The board “supports unanimously” the project, which would probably boost the stock’s liquidity “if it is technically feasible.”
The TotalEnergies CEO announced his ambition for an American listing earlier this year in an effort to reduce the discount at which the company trades compared with its US peers. The idea caused a political stir in Paris — including from President Emmanuel Macron — amid concern that it might reduce the firm’s commitment to France and weaken the Paris stock exchange.
To reassure French authorities, Pouyanne has pledged that the company will remain headquartered in France, and keep its listing in Paris and other European exchanges, even if it were to have its shares traded in New York.
Paris will remain the company share’s “introduction market,” the CEO said Wednesday. ADRs, which represent 9% of the shares of TotalEnergies, generate some “additional costs” and “frictions” for US investors, Pouyanne said in New York on Wednesday.
The company is working on all technical aspects of the process with the European and US central securities depositories, and the project requires some IT developments, according to the CEO.
Pouyanne first mentioned considerations for a “primary listing” in New York in an interview with Bloomberg last April, arguing that its shareholder base is increasingly made of US investors.
They tend to have greater appetite for oil and gas stocks than European asset managers, which are increasingly constrained by investment rules related to environmental, social and governance standards, the CEO has said.
(Updates with CEO comments on project from fifth paragraph.)
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