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Gas station retailer Applegreen said Thursday that its co-founders and a portion of the US private equity group Blackstone have come together to bid to take the company public in a deal that would value it at nearly € 694 million.
The founders, CEO Robert Etchingham and COO Joseph Barrett, own 41.3 percent of the company through a vehicle called B&J Holdings. They will remain “significant capital” investors if the proposed offer, priced at 5.75 euros per share, is accepted by the remaining shareholders, Applegreen said in a statement.
The decision to take Applegreen privately comes as the company faces Covid-19, Brexit, and an accelerating shift from drivers to electric vehicles.
“The Independent Directors of the Applegreen Board confirm that they are in advanced discussions with a consortium that includes B&J Holdings Limited and Blackstone Infrastructure Partners regarding a possible cash offer for the company at a price of 5.75 euros per share”, Applegreen said.
“If the transaction proceeds, B&J Holdings Limited would retain a significant equity stake in the Consortium and Robert Etchingham and Joseph Barrett would retain their current management positions as CEO and COO respectively within the business.”
Share
The offer, which has yet to be formally submitted, represents a premium of 48.2 percent over Applegreen’s closing price of 3.88 euros on Wednesday. Shares of the company soared to 5.55 euros in the Dublin operations.
“This appears to be an elegant solution for Applegreen and shareholders, as public markets did not reflect the true value of the business, which proved extremely resilient even during the worst of Covid-19,” said Allan Smylie, Broker Analyst at Davy bag. , which issued a note to clients in October setting a target price of € 6.50 on the share.
Etchingham, a Wexford native who will turn 67 next week, founded the company in 1992 with a station in Ballyfermot, West Dublin, after having spent the previous decade working for Esso. Mr. Barrett (54) joined him the following year.
Applegreen raised € 92 million through an initial public offering (IPO) in June 2015, in a deal that also saw € 21.7 million in shares placed by Etchingham and Barrett at the time.
The duo’s stake declined in subsequent years as they sold more shares on the market and Applegreen raised an additional € 222 million through two share placements to fund the expansion. The number of group sites has tripled since the IPO to a total of 559 at the end of June, including 204 locations in Ireland, 164 in the UK and 191 in the US, a market it entered in 2014.
COVID-19
In September, Applegreen said it was part of a consortium that had been awarded a contract to develop 27 freeway service areas along the 917 km of the New York State Expressway.
While the group’s sales volumes plummeted by 57 percent at the height of the Covid-19 shutdowns internationally in April, they had rebounded significantly to be off 29 percent at the end of June, according to the update. most recent financial.
Revenue for the first half of the year fell 27 percent to 1.1 billion euros from the same period last year, causing earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization to fall to 25.3 million euros from 58.9 million euros.
Barrett predicted in an interview last month that 40 percent of new cars bought in 2040 will be electric, which, he said, offers Applegreen more opportunities to boost its retail and ancillary offerings. Currently, the company charges 1,500 electric vehicles daily at its locations, with an average dwell time for customers of approximately 25 minutes.
Applegreen said in its statement Thursday that independent directors, led by Chairman Danny Kitchen, met to evaluate the initial approach of the bidding consortium and excluded the two co-founders and CFO Niall Dolan.
The independent board, advised by corporate financiers at Goodbody Stockbrokers, intends to “unanimously recommend that Applegreen shareholders accept the potential cash offer,” he said.
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