Managerial Disclosures and Corporate Control

Abstract

This chapter contributes to the understanding of the Anglo-Iranian Oil Company (AIOC, now British Petroleum) practices in Iran and provides a clear picture of how nationalisation evolved on 1st May 1951. Nationalisation brought into sharp focus issues affecting key AIOC stakeholder groups, including Iranian employees, Iranian government, and UK investors, which became the subject of claim and counter-claim from the AIOC board and Iranian nationalist opinion. As a consequence of these disputed claims, a propaganda battle became a crucial ingredient of the crisis, not least because a key objective of the AIOC management was to defend itself from the claims. In fact, this was crucial in absolving the company from any blame for the international crisis. As a result, in considering the above effects, by using AIOC as a case study, a textual analysis of the Chairman’s Statement to Shareholders is conducted, and the validity of the Statement is reappraised with reference to historical evidence.