Former BP CEO Hayward’s new venture raises $2.18 billion

“Vallares PLC is a shell company that will use that capital to buy an emerging-market oil and gas firm or asset worth between £3 billion and £8 billion. The company was founded by Mr. Hayward along with financiers Nathaniel Rothschild and Tom Daniel and former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. banker Julian Metherell.”

Hayward stepped down as BP CEO in the aftermath of last year’s oil spill, which dumped an estimated 4.9 million barrels of oil into the Gulf of Mexico.

He became a much-maligned figure in the United States, where he was cast as out of touch and disconnected from the disaster.

But the Journal says the initial success of the venture — Vallares raised more than it had hoped —“marks a fresh start” for Hayward.