Total and Erg sell Italian fuel retail business to API

French oil company Total said on Friday it had agreed to sell the Italian petrol station network it co-owns with partner ERG to refiner API, completing the planned disposal of the TotalErg joint venture's assets.

 

The transaction includes 2,600 retail service stations, a logistics hub in Rome and 25.16 percent of a refinery in northern Italy.

 

Total did not disclose financial terms but said the transaction, the third in its plan to exit the Italian retail fuel market, brings the venture's cumulative asset disposal proceeds to around 750 million euros ($870 million).

 

Italian energy group ERG said in a separate statement it would receive 273 million euros from the deal, including extraordinary dividends distributed by TotalErg worth 71 million euros and a deferred component of around 36 million euros.

 

The partners had been in exclusive talks with API after selling Total Italia Gas, another joint venture subsidiary, to UGI Corp.

 

Total also said it was buying Erg's 51 percent stake in their shared lubricants business, terminating the joint venture.

 

Momar Nguer, Total's head of marketing and services, said the lubricants buyout would allow the French group to "focus and expand this high-return business".

 

Total also intends to maintain its presence in the Italian truck and aircraft refuelling markets, he said.

 

ERG Chief Executive Luca Bettone said the deal allowed the company further to strengthen its financial resources to continue its growth in renewable energy.

 

The Italian energy group was assisted by HSBC as financial adviser, DLA Piper as legal adviser and Ernst & Young as accounting and tax adviser.

 

($1 = 0.8610 euros)

(By Bate Felix and Francesca Landini; Editing by Laurence Frost and Dale Hudson)