Liam Denning, Columnist

Elliott Finds Marathon’s Andeavor Endeavors Wanting

Doubling down on its retail network hasn’t helped the refining conglomerate.

September 25, 2019 at 6:29 PM UTC

Liam Denning is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering energy. A former banker, he edited the Wall Street Journal’s Heard on the Street column and wrote the Financial Times’s Lex column.

Gary Heminger, chairman and chief executive officer of Marathon Petroleum Corp.
Photographer: Bloomberg/Bloomberg

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“Remaking Marathon” is the title of Elliott Management’s slide deck detailing its thoughts on oil refiner Marathon Petroleum Corp. “Unmaking Marathon” would be closer to the mark.

Marathon is the quintessential target for Elliott (or any other activist): a conglomerate built through acquisitions that has struggled to convince the market it can make 1+1=3. Having traded at a premium to its peers just prior to announcing the $29 billion acquisition of West Coast refiner Andeavor, the stock has decoupled notably since the start of this year and now trades at a marked discount: