Petrogas chain now favourite to buy Statoil's 236 stations
Wednesday March 15 2006
McEnaney
PETROGAS, an independently-owned chain of 25 service stations based mainly in the Greater Dublin Area, has emerged as one of the favourites to acquire the Statoil chain of 236 service stations.
The other favourite is Topaz Energy, a consortium which last year paid approximately ?180m for Shell's Irish retail and commercial assets.
Petrogas, which is owned by Bob Etchingham and Joe Barrett, operates filling stations with associated convenience stores under the Applegreen brand. It is believed to be advised by Dolmen Securities.
Unlike some other chains which are largely made up of independently-owned stations, Petrogas owns and operates all of its properties. It employs 500 people.
The Statoil network includes 69 stations which are company owned. Employing 1,100 people, it is the dominant player in the motor fuel market with a 20pc share.
With margins in the Irish petrol market reducing to around 1pc, many of the companies bidding for the Statoil network are looking at it as a retail play. These include Tesco, whose presence in the market is one of the main reasons for the tighter margins, and Musgrave.
Aside from Topaz, bidders whose interest lies primarily in the filling stations themselves include Maxol.
The Petrogas bid is being backed by Anglo Irish Bank and by Bank of Scotland. In a move which enhances its reputation for riding more than one horse in any race, Anglo is also backing the Topaz bid.
Topaz, which last year acquired Shell's Irish network of forecourts, is led by Danny Murphy, the former managing director of Emo Oil, and Neil O'Leary, the chief executive of Ion Equity, an Irish corporate finance house.
Others who have bid for the Statoil assets include Shane Reihill, the former joint chief executive of the Tedcastle oil distribution and retail group who shared a ?50m payout with his father Frank, when he split form the family-owned group in October 2001. John Sweeney, a galway-based businessman whose interests span filling stations and property is also understood to have tabled a bid.
It is understood that the bids which have been received by KPMG, which is handling the sale, are in the ?250m-to-?300m range with informed sources saying the winning bid is likely to be towards the lower end of that range.
As well as price, bidders have been asked to stipulate what warranties they would expect from Statoil for stations which often have residual environmental liability. They have also and whether they will intend to run the business as a going concern.
