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DCC expands in to Benelux with BP

Friday, September 21 10:21:00

Dublin-listed DCC today said it has expanded its fuel distribution business in to the Benelux countries with a deal with BP worth E24.5m.

The Irish diversified company said it has reached conditional agreement with BP to acquire BP Gas Nederland BV, BP's liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) distribution business in the Netherlands, together with the trade and assets of BP's smaller LPG distribution business in north Belgium.

Completion of the acquisition is conditional on approval from the Netherlands Competition Authority and it is anticipated that the transaction will complete in late 2012, DCC said. The acquisition of Benegas follows the recently announced acquisitions by DCC of BP's LPG distribution business in Britain (announced on 8 August 2012) and the Statoil Fuel and Retail LPG distribution businesses in Norway and Sweden (announced on 4 September 2012).

Based in Putten in the central Netherlands, Benegas is one of the leading suppliers of LPG in the Netherlands.

Benegas supplies approximately 55,000 tonnes per annum of bulk, cylinder and aerosol LPG to a broad range of industrial, commercial and domestic customers. Benegas has 44 staff and outsources its distribution and its cylinder filling to third parties.

The total consideration payable by DCC for Benegas is E24.5 million, on a cash free/debt free basis, to be satisfied in cash at completion. The adjusted gross tangible operating assets of Benegas were approximately E15.4 million at 31 December 2011 while the adjusted net tangible operating assets were approximately E6.7 million. In the year ended 31 December 2011, Benegas generated an adjusted operating profit of E4.0 million.

Tommy Breen, Chief Executive of DCC plc, said today: "DCC has committed total expenditure of approximately E100 million in recent weeks to the expansion of our LPG business through the acquisitions of BP's LPG business in Britain, the Statoil Fuel & Retail LPG business in Scandinavia and now Benegas. These acquisitions significantly increase the scale and geographic scope of DCC's LPG business in Europe."