October 7 (SeeNews) - Slovenian energy group Petrol [LJE:PETG] said it has completed the acquisition of Croatian petroleum products retailer and wholesaler Crodux Derivati Dva for 191.7 million euro ($222 million).
“By buying Crodux Derivati Dva, the Petrol group strengthens its position as Croatia's second largest oil derivatives supplier. With a total of 204 fuel stations, Petrol's market share in Croatia raises from 13% to 23%,“ Petrol said in a statement on Wednesday.
You can subscribe to our M&A newsletter here
Petrol will also assume the company's 19.2 million euro net debt to banks.
Petrol will carry out the acquisition and refinance the debt by using an international syndicated loan of 200 million euro arranged by Slovenian bank NLB and Croatian lender Privredna Banka Zagreb.
Croatia's oil and gas company INA [ZSE:INA] is the biggest market player and following the acquisition of Crodux, INA would keep its market share of 40 to 50%, Croatia's competition authority said in July when it approved the deal.
Petrol signed a deal to buy Crodux Derivati Dva from Croatian businessman Ivan Cermak in January. Until its merger with Petrol's Croatian unit, Petrol d.o.o. Zagreb, Crodux will remain independent company. The merged company will have 2,200 employees.
The overall revenue including excise duties of Petrol d.o.o. Zagreb and Crodux for last year is estimated at some 1 billion euro, which would have ranked the merged company among Croatia's largest companies.
The estimated EBITDA of Crodux for 2021 is 37 million euro, excluding the impact of IFRS16.
Petrol's business plan for 2021 does not include the financial results of Crodux, which will be included in the consolidated financial report of the Petrol group for 2021 in the last quarter of this year. Thanks to that acquisition, Petrol group's EBITDA will be boosted by 10 million euro.
In line with the strategy of the Petrol group for 2021-2025 on the Croatian market, Petrol will also invest in production of electricity from renewable source, CEO of Petrol Nada Drobne Popovic said in the statement. Crodux has some 1,100 employees and the acquisition will bring the overall number of Petrol employees to more then 6,000.
Following the acquisition, Petrol runs 594 fuel stations in southeastern Europe.
Petrol's shares closed at 431 euro on the Ljubljana bourse on Wednesday, down 0.23% from the previous closing price.
($= 0.865 euro)
Petrol d.d. is among the biggest companies in SEE. You can download our SEE Top 100 ranking
here or subscribe to our free Top 100 newsletter
here