Clayton Dubillier & Rice has led a £500m management buy-out of Patron Capital’s petrol station retail holdings.
The Motor Fuel Group was sold in its entirety to the US private equity group and its management, led by Alasdair Locke.
The company has grown rapidly from 48 petrol forecourts in 2011 to 373 petrol and forecourt retailer sites spread across the UK and more than 200 dealer sites.
Patron originally purchased the company for £51m and subsequently invested heavily in expanding the group’s retail portfolio.
MFG and Patron bought 54 petrol stations from an unknown seller in 2013 for about £50m and in August last year the company acquired 232 petrol stations from Murco in a deal estimated to have cost £200m
As recently as April this year Patron bought another 90 petrol stations from Shell to add to the MFG portfolio.
Stephen Green, senior partner at Patron, said: “Together with the management team and Alasdair Locke, we have succeeded in taking a complex property-backed business, driving operational efficiencies and rapidly transforming the company into a stable, profitable operating platform with potential for future growth. The success of MFG – one of our largest investments to date and a highly profitable one – highlights the strength of our strategy of investing opportunistically in property-backed investments across western Europe.”
After the sale, Locke, co-investor with Patron into MFG, will remain as chairman of the business and will be joined on the board by Sir Terry Leahy, former chief executive of Tesco.
Clayton Dubillier & Rice was advised by Clifford Chance, Debevoise & Plimpton, EY and OC&C. Patron was advised by Travers Smith. MFG was advised by Pinsent Masons.
