Vitol, the world’s largest independent oil trader, is bringing its African-focused petrol forecourt business back in house via a £1.8bn deal.
“Fuels distribution and marketing in Africa remains a core activity for the Vitol Group,” the company said in a statement. “Vivo will benefit from Vitol’s expertise and be better placed to pursue opportunities in a highly fragmented market.”
Vivo has a network of about 2,400 service stations across more than 20 countries in Africa where it sells Shell and Engen-branded fuels and lubricants.
It was carved out of Shell’s African retail business in 2011. Vitol, private equity group Helios Investment Partners and Shell operated the company as a joint venture before the two top shareholders bought out Shell for $250m in 2016.
The company was floated three years ago in London at 165p a share with Vitol selling more than £300m. The shares only briefly traded above the IPO price as investors failed to warm to the company.
Trafigura, one of Vitol’s main competitors, recently took back control of its troubled forecourt business Puma Energy. Vitol is the world’s biggest independent oil trader, handling more than 7m barrels per day of crude and refined oil products
The company and its rivals were among the biggest winners from last year’s pandemic-induced oil price crash. Vitol reported net income of $3.2bn, up from $2.3bn in 2019, on revenue of $140bn, the best performance since the company was founded more than 50 years ago. It also handed $2.9bn to its almost 400 partners.
The company has spent $1bn on US shale assets this year and has joined forces with Pakistani oil broker Murtaza Lakhani to buy a 5 per cent stake in Vostok Oil, a giant Arctic oil project being developed by Russian oil group Rosneft.
But Vitol is also investing in renewable energy as the world moves away from fossil fuels. It has committed in excess of $1.1bn to projects and has more than a gigawatt of renewable power assets. Vitol also has a deepwater oil and gas project off the coast of Ghana.
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