26 Jun 2019 07:00
Applegreen plc
("Applegreen" or the "Company")
Acquisition of US forecourt operation
Dublin, London, 26 June 2019: Applegreen is pleased to announce that it has reached agreement to acquire a leasehold interest in certain forecourt retail assets of Lehigh Gas Wholesale LLC, CrossAmerica Partners LP ("CAP") and their affiliates (the "Lessor") located in the states of Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin, USA (the "Transaction").
Under the terms of the Transaction, Applegreen will enter into an initial 10 year lease agreement with the Lessor to lease the property assets and commence trade at the service stations, with favourable terms and extension options negotiated in order to allow for a low risk expansion of Applegreen's presence in the USA. Completion of the Transaction is subject to a number of conditions and, pending satisfaction of those conditions, is expected to complete in Q3 2019.
The assets comprise a total of 46 sites with a significant number of these sites concentrated in and close to the greater Minneapolis and St Paul metropolitan area. All of these sites are petrol filling stations which currently include convenience store operations. No up-front consideration is required to be paid by Applegreen and the Transaction is expected to be earnings accretive in 2019. Any additional capital investment in the portfolio will be funded from existing resources.
These operations will be managed by our existing management team based in the north-east USA which will be supplemented with additional operational and finance personnel to ensure the assets are successfully integrated into the Applegreen business.
Chief Executive Bob Etchingham said: "Following significant acquisitions on the east coast of the USA in the past two years, we are delighted to announce our first major acquisition in the mid-west. We consider this group of sites to be a good fit for our business given the convenience of its locations centred in the large metropolitan area of Minneapolis-St. Paul and we are happy to expand on our existing relationship with CAP in the USA. We believe that this acquisition represents an opportunity to establish a significant presence in another market in the USA while leveraging our existing management and operational capabilities."
For further enquiries, please contact:
Applegreen
Bob Etchingham (CEO) +353 (0) 1 512 4800
Niall Dolan (CFO)
Drury Porter Novelli
Paddy Hughes +353 (0) 1 260 5000
Shore Capital
Stephane Auton +44 (0) 20 7408 4090
Patrick Castle
Daniel Bush
Goodbody
Joe Gill +353 (0) 1 667 0420
Siobhan Wall
Richard Tunney