Britain’s BP has agreed to promote a 65% shareholding in lubricants enterprise Castrol to Stonepeak for $6 billion, months on from the oil large looking for a purchaser for the unit.
The deal comes as the corporate seems to launch a strategic reset, together with a inexperienced technique U-turn and the divestment of $20 billion of belongings by the tip of 2027. The sale values Castrol at $10.1 billion.
Power firms, together with India’s Reliance Industries and Saudi Arabia’s oil behemoth Aramco, in addition to non-public fairness companies Apollo International Administration and Lone Star Funds, had all been touted as suitors for BP’s Castrol unit in Could, in response to Bloomberg, citing folks aware of the matter.
“With this, we have now now accomplished or introduced over half of our focused $20bn divestment programme, with proceeds to considerably strengthen bp’s stability sheet,” interim CEO Carol Howle stated in a press release.
“The sale marks an necessary milestone within the ongoing supply of our reset technique. We’re decreasing complexity, focusing the downstream on our main built-in companies, and accelerating supply of our plan.”
BP has the choice to promote its remaining 35% stake in Castrol after a two-year lock-up interval.
Technique reset
The Castrol majority stake sale comes days on from the oil large asserting it was appointing a brand new CEO — it is fourth in six years.
Woodside Power boss Meg O’Neill will take up the function on April 1, changing Murray Auchincloss, who lasted lower than two years within the function.
Stephen Isaacs, strategic advisor at Alvine Capital, which holds a place in BP, instructed CNBC’s “Squawk Field Europe” final week that whereas BP has been “a really poor performer for a protracted, very long time,” the CEO change may very well be “the final piece of the jigsaw” in getting its home so as.
“I feel there will be additional stake gross sales of various elements of BP” going ahead, Dan Boardman-Weston, CEO at BRI Wealth Administration, instructed CNBC on Wednesday. The shift will see the corporate “getting again to their bread and butter of specializing in oil and gasoline exploration and improvement.”
The London-listed firm has underperformed in contrast with its friends in latest occasions, having reported declining annual earnings in each 2023 and 2024.
BP’s shares opened at 1.3% on Wednesday earlier than paring positive factors barely to final commerce 0.9% increased. Its share value is up round 9% thus far this yr, following a 15.7% drop in 2024. Strain on the inventory eased in 2025 following a management shakeup, a cost-cutting program, and a string of oil discoveries.
