By Stephanie Kelly
Dec 24 (Reuters) – BP has agreed to sell a 65% stake in its Castrol lubricants business to U.S. investment firm Stonepeak for about $6 billion, a significant step in the oil major’s $20 billion divestment plan aimed at cutting debt and boosting returns.
The deal, announced on Wednesday, values Castrol at $10.1 billion, and marks the British company’s most ambitious asset sale so far in its efforts to streamline operations and scale back its renewable energy investments after years of lagging rivals in share performance.
BP will retain a 35% stake in a new joint venture with Stonepeak, which it can sell after a two-year lock-in period.
Shares in BP gained more than 1% on Wednesday following the announcement but were down 0.1% by 0934 GMT.
While the deal values Castrol at about $10 billion, the enterprise value falls to roughly $8 billion after adjusting for minority interests and debt-like obligations, RBC analysts said in a note on Wednesday.
“We continue to question the rationale (beyond the headline multiple) of selling this highly cash generative, low volatility and low capital intensity asset, as ultimately this is detrimental to the long term dividend sustainability and earnings quality of the business,” RBC analysts said in the note.
“Accelerated dividends now will help reduce debt, but clearly at the expense of medium term cash flows.”
The sale, which includes $800 million for accelerated dividend payments, comes after BP put the century-old lubricants unit under review earlier this year as part of a broader strategy to focus on its core oil and gas business.
BP will use the sale proceeds to reduce debt, it said.
It has vowed to sell $20 billion worth of assets to help slash its net debt from $26 billion to between $14 billion and $18 billion by the end of 2027.
After the Castrol deal, BP’s completed and announced divestment proceeds total around $11 billion.
In a separate statement, Stonepeak said the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board will invest up to $1.05 billion as part of the deal and gain an indirect stake in Castrol.
Reuters reported in November that BP was in talks with Stonepeak about selling Castrol. The Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times first reported details of the deal late on Tuesday.
Castrol’s sale process began earlier this year. In September, Stonepeak and private equity firm One Rock submitted bids for the unit, Reuters previously reported, citing sources.
BP last week appointed Woodside Energy’s Meg O’Neill as its next CEO, taking over from Murray Auchincloss.
In October, new BP Chair Albert Manifold told employees that the group’s portfolio was “overly complex” and it needed to shift focus back to oil and gas faster.
In August, BP had said it would launch a review of how best to develop and monetise its oil and gas production assets and consider more cost cuts to boost shareholder returns.
(Reporting by Rishabh Jaiswal, Yamini Kalia and Shashwat Awasthi in Bengaluru, and Stephanie Kelly in Chicago; editing by Rashmi Aich, Tomasz Janowski, Jason Neely)
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