ESTONIA: Statoil's chain to be taken over by Canadian company
19.04.2012, 17:31On 18 April, Statoil's board of directors has decided to pre-accept, subject to certain conditions, a cash offer from the Toronto-listed retail enterprise Alimentation Couche-Tard for its 54% stake in Statoil Fuel & Retail, listed in Oslo. Should the deal go through, Statoil-labelled fuel station chains in the Baltics, Poland and Scandinavia will leave from Statoil's accounts, but retain the logo at least until September 2019.
The Canadians offered NOK 53 per share (adjusted for any dividends and other distributions after 31 December 2011), representing a 53% premium compared to the closing price on the Oslo stock exchange the day before. Statoil cashes an estimated NOK 8.6bn should the transaction be successfully closed.
According to the note to the exchange, the new Canadian majority owners change the chain's focus to more retail. news2biz was unable to get more information of Alimentation Couche-Tard's plans due to the fact that the takeover was announced only briefly before the current edition was published. news2biz will return to the issue in the upcoming editions.
Statoil Fuel & Retail's Estonian subsidiary, Statoil Fuel & Retail Eesti has 46 manned fuel stations and 6 automatic stations in Estonia; additionally, the parent's financial centre is located in Estonia (see no 302 page 12).
In 2010, the company turned over EUR 196m, an increase by 13.4% year-on-year. The profit grew by 163% y-o-y to EUR 8.8m mostly due to the operations of the financial service.
According to Statoil, the retail business has different drivers for value creation compared to Statoil's core business, the production and wholesale of oil products and energy. That is why Statoil in 2010 decided to establish Statoil Fuel & Retail as a company listed on the Oslo stock exchange.
Statoil departs the fuel retail business, but leaves the
logo behind. Photo: Statoil Fuel & Retail Eesti
At the time of the IPO, it was announced that the size and time horizon of Statoil's ownership would be tailored to develop shareholder value for Statoil Fuel & Retail and for Statoil.
Statoil Fuel & Retail holds a non-exclusive right to use the Statoil name until 30 September 2019, in line with the agreement entered into at the time of the IPO. Statoil Fuel & Retail is also the beneficial owner of the droplet logo.