Chevron will spend $425 million to acquire Puma Energy’s Australian business in a surprise move to re-enter the fuels retailing market in Australia only four years after exiting it through the sale of its half-share of Caltex.
Puma, one of the country’s largest independent fuel retail chains, owns a network of about 360 retail fuel sites around Australia, 222 shops and dozens of cafes and truck stops.
The assets, put on the block by Puma owner Trafigura, could be worth about $450 million, The Australian Financial Review’s Street Talk column reported in September.
“The acquisition will provide Chevron with a stable market for production volumes from our refining joint ventures in Asia and create a foundation for sustainable earnings growth,” Mark Nelson, Chevron’s executive vice president for Downstream & Chemicals said in a statement issued from Chevron’s head office in San Ramon, California.
“It will build on Chevron’s strong history of partnership in Australia and our global experience in fuels and convenience marketing and supply.”
The deal, which is due to close in mid-2020 subject to regulatory approvals, adds to the upheaval in the petrol and diesel retailing sector in Australia, where Woolworths recently sold its petrol unit to UK-based EG Group for $1.73 billion and Canadian convenience retailer Alimentation Couche-Tard is pursuing a $8.6 billion takeover of Caltex.
Puma only entered Australia’s fuel market in 2013 when it acquired what was Archer Capital’s Ausfuel, along with Neumann Petroleum and Central Combined Group.
Puma Energy has 3 per cent to 4 per cent of the Australian fuel retailing market, according to industry data firm IBISWorld, and trails the likes of Coles (13.9 per cent), Caltex (12.6 per cent), Woolworths (now EG Group, 11.5 per cent), 7-Eleven (6.7 per cent) and BP (5.4 per cent).
Extracted from AFR