Marathon Sheds Assets to MLP
Marathon Petroleum Corp said on Wednesday it sold some terminal, pipeline and storage assets to MPLX Inc, the master limited partnership that it spun off in 2012, for $2.02 billion.
Ohio-based Marathon has said it would speed up asset sales to MPLX and consider a separation of its Speedway retail business in response to pressure from activist hedge fund Elliott Management to boost its stock price.
"This drop-down of additional high-quality logistics assets to MPLX represents the first of several drops expected to occur in 2017, and is an important part of our plan to unlock the value of our midstream business for investors," Marathon Chief Executive Gary Heminger said in a statement.
The assets being sold include 62 product terminals with about 24 million barrels of storage capacity, 604 miles of pipeline and 73 tanks with 7.8 million barrels of storage capacity.
Marathon will receive $504 million in MPLX stock and $1.51 billion in cash for the assets.
Reporting by Swetha Gopinath
