People Moves: 05/03/2025

Balfour Beatty appoints Phillip Hoare as new CEO, M7 Real Estate appoints Marina Breda, and Saudi Aramco exploring initial bid for BP's Castrol unit

In today’s newsletter, Energy and Infrastructure Moves will focus on infrastructure people moves and renewables insights, ahead of eagerly awaited Q1 earnings from bp (BP 0.00%↑) , scheduled to be released on May 6, 2025.

Saudi Aramco are in the early stages of considering a potential bid for bp's lubricant business Castrol, according to an article by Zawya. The story so far concerning bp and Castrol is very nuanced. An active investor, Elliott Management last month came out and publicly pushed for bp to divest its stake in its aforementioned lubricant business, bp is now considering selling its Castrol business as part of a strategic review. The sale could raise around $10 billion to strengthen bp's balance sheet.

Why is bp considering the sale of Castrol? To focus on oil and gas investments, to reduce capital expenditure on renewables, to respond to pressure from activist investors, and to improve investor returns.

In other news, UK major construction player Balfour Beatty (BBY 0.00%↑) has announced a CEO transition that will see Phillip Hoare (pictured below) replace current role holder Leo Quinn as Balfour's new CEO.

M7 Real Estate has appointed Marina Breda as Head of Transactions – Spain.