Billionaire businessman Denis O’Brien has struck a deal with Canadian convenience and fuel retailer Couche-Tard to offload his Topaz chain of petrol stations weeks after expanding its network.
No takeover price was disclosed by the two parties with the deal expected to close in spring 2016.
It was confirmed that Mr O’Brien’s nephew and Topaz chief executive, Emmet O’Neill will step down from his role and leave the company once the deal is completed early next year.
Couche-Tard, which employs about 100,000 people across its network in north America, Europe, Asia and the Middle East, indicated that the entire Topaz workforce would be retained.
“They are a great team of people and we need every one of them,” said Couche-Tard chief executive Bran Hannasch.
Mr Hannasch also outlined plans to eventually replace Topaz’s shops with its own Circle K brand as part of its global strategy to develop the brand globally.
Some Topaz stations have undergone refurbishment work of late as its ReStore retail brand was introduced at additional stations.
In February, Topaz announced a €20m investment in its network part of which was earmarked to continue the expansion of the Topaz and ReStore brands into Esso stations.
Mr O’Brien assumed control of Topaz in December 2013 after paying the liquidator of IBRC a reported fee of €150m for loans attached to the business which were valued at over of €300m.
Given that the price Couche-Tard has agreed to pay for Topaz has not been disclosed it’s difficult to tell what profit, if any, Mr O’Brien has made on the sale.
Yesterday’s, surprise announcement comes just weeks after O’Brien’s company completed the takeover of Esso’s Irish business in a move that increased its network of service stations in Ireland to more than 460.
Topaz’s acquisition of Esso’s Irish business represented the third major forecourt retailer in Ireland that has been absorbed into the Topaz brand since its formation in 2005 having previously taken over operations of Shell and Statoil.
The Esso deal was given the green light by the Competition and Consumer Protection Commission in mid-October, adding close to 100 extra stations to its network.
The commission’s decision came shortly after a major development at another of Mr O’Brien’s companies when his telecoms company Digicel pulled the plug on its planned IPO 72 hours before its shares were to begin trading in New York.
Like yesterday’s news, the abandonment of Digicel’s potential €1.8bn flotation came as a surprise to many analysts.