Supermarket chains Morrisons has sold its petrol forecourts in a £2.5bn deal that will allow it to reduce debt.
The Bradford-based chain has sold 337 petrol forecourts and more than 400 electric vehicle charging points in its car parks to the country’s largest petrol station operator, Motor Fuel Group. The deal is worth £2.5bn in cash and equity, and will see Morrisons take a 20% stake in Motor Fuel Group.
Morrisons said the deal would allow it to use £1.8bn to repay debt and strengthen its capital structure, as well as helping its strategy to grow in the convenience store market. It said would be exploring a number of options for reducing its debt, using around £1bn of the proceeds of the deal.
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MFG is majority-owned by Clayton Dubilier & Rice, an American private equity firm which took over Morrisons two years ago in a £7bn deal.
Last month Morrisons announced losses of more than £1bn, in large part due to the costs of servicing debts of £8.6bn. The company also saw its sales drop by £121m in its last financial year, which bosses blamed on lower fuel prices and other factors.
The losses led the firm to cut more than 8,800 jobs in its stores, distribution office, manufacturing facilities and head office.
Last week Morrisons announced a partnership with travel money specialist eurochange which will see bureaux de change opening in around 50 of its supermarkets, as well as customers being able to get overseas currency at the morrisonstravelmoney.com website.
Original artice – https://business-live.co.uk/all-about/yorkshire-humber
