ENERGY SECTOR: Saudi Aramco Reportedly Considers Bid For All/Part Of Castrol
BPLN A1/A-/A+
Not much in the BBG article not reflected in the headlines and the interest in selling Castrol has been well flagged in recent weeks.
- Aramco studying bid for all or part of Castrol with particular interest in Indian ops.
- Castrol’s Mumbai-listed subsidiary Castrol India has a MV around USD 2.5bn.
- “Aramco could look to combine the Castrol assets with its Valvoline lubricants unit”.
- “The Castrol assets are also attracting interest from other bidders”.
Want to read more?
Find more articles and bullets on these widgets:
Historical bullets
EGB OPTIONS: RXH5 133/134 Call Spread Sold
RXH5 133/134 call spread 9K given at 39.
MNI EXCLUSIVE: MNI interviews Philly Fed visiting scholar
MNI interviews Philly Fed visiting scholar on monetary policy outlook. -On MNI Policy MainWire now, for more details please contact sales@marketnews.com
EUROPEAN INFLATION: Italy Flash HICP Surprisingly Firms, Led By Energy
Italian January flash HICP was higher than expected at 1.7% Y/Y, (vs 1.4% consensus and prior). On a monthly basis it was -0.7% M/M (vs -1.1% consensus, 0.1% prior). The higher-than-expected print was a large reason for the Eurozone-wide inflation estimate printing slightly above consensus, with the two released at the same time. It combined with last week's releases revealing a small beat for Spain, a small miss for France and Germany as expected.
The increase in Italian headline HICP reflected Y/Y acceleration in energy and 'Food, alcohol and tobacco' sub-components whilst services moderated slightly:
- Energy rose (though remained in deflation) to -0.7% Y/Y (vs -2.7% prior) - making it the highest since August 2023.
- Food, alcohol, and tobacco HICP is estimated to have risen to 2.4% Y/Y in January (vs 2.1% in December).
- Services slowed slightly to 2.8% Y/Y (vs 2.9% in December), the lowest since April 2022, though still firmly above the pre-pandemic levels. The latest moderation comes despite the European Commission Survey seeing the share of firms expecting services prices to increase in the months ahead rising to +8.2 in January from +7.4 in Dec and -0.4 in October for its highest since Mar 2024.
- Non-energy industrial goods (core goods) were estimated to rise 0.1% Y/Y for the second consecutive month.
