By John Tilak, Euan Rocha and Scott Haggett
TORONTO/CALGARY, May 15 (Reuters) - Imperial Oil,Canada's No. 2 integrated oil producer and refiner, is movingforward on plans to sell some 500 of its remaining company-ownedEsso retail sites and has begun to accept proposals frominterested bidders, according to four sources familiar with theprocess.
In January Imperial, majority-owned by Exxon Mobil,said it was evaluating selling its remaining company-owned Essostations in Canada. [IDn:nL1N0V733J]
Some 1,200 of Imperial's 1,700 Esso-branded sites operateunder a wholesaler model, where the stations are owned by otherparties but supplied by Imperial and retain the Esso brand.
Parties interested in the assets include Parkland Fuel Corp, Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc and CST BrandsInc, said the sources, who asked not to be named as theyhave not been cleared to discuss the matter publicly.
All three companies, some of the largest gas stationoperators in Canada, already operate Esso-branded stations inthe country.
Local real estate developers, along with some private equitybuyers, are also showing interest in the gas stations, said twoof the sources.
Imperial declined to comment on details of the sale process.Parkland, CST and Couche-Tard were not immediately available forcomment.
Imperial has broken up the 500 stations into a number of packages, split geographically, the sources said, adding thatinterested parties can bid on one, several or the whole. It isnot clear which parties have bid on the portfolio as a whole oron individual packages.
Since Imperial does not break out specific earnings numbersfor the 500 stations, valuation ranges on the assets have swungwidely.
First Energy analyst Michael Dunn said these sites could beworth upwards of C$2 million per station, implying that proceedsfrom the sale could top C$1 billion ($831 million). He noted theassets were largely in densely populated, high-traffic urbanareas and many had car washes and Tim Hortons outlets.
Energy companies have been spinning off their gas stationassets as they tend to trade at higher multiples on their ownand allow their management to focus on their core production andrefining operations.
Both Parkland and Couche-Tard have been very acquisitive. InMarch, Couche-Tard agreed to acquire the retail, commercial fueland aviation businesses of Royal Dutch Shell in Denmarkto expand its presence in Scandinavia.
Parkland last year agreed to acquire gas station operatorPioneer Energy, which is part-owned by Suncor Energy,for C$378 million.
($1 = 1.2028 Canadian dollars) (Editing by Ted Botha)