Valvoline Inc. rallied 13.9% in late afternoon trade on Wednesday after the company’s shares were briefly halted due to volatility. The motor-oil company has been approached about a potential acquisition of part of its business by Aramco, the state-run oil company of Saudi Arabia, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing sources familiar with the situation. Valvoline said earlier this year it planned to separate its retail services and global products business. Aramco has proposed the purchase of this Valvoline unit, but the deal talks are in an early stage, the newspaper reported. Valvoline has a market cap of about $5.3 billion. Its shares are down 6.2% so far this year, compared to a loss of about 17% by the S&P 500 . (This updates an earlier report that said the talks were about buying Valvoline in its entirety, instead of a unit of the company).
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