Divest or divestiture happens when a company or a government attempts to stay focused and remain profitably by disposing some of the assets. It could be done by selling, exchanging, closing down or even through bankruptcy. Ampol divested Gull for potential competition issues. Ampol wanted to make sure they were fully in a part of application to the NZCC for approval in order to acquire New Zealand’s Z energy.
After the divestiture, Australian investment manager Allegro Funds successfully obtained funding from Ares and ASB Bank in order to acquire Gull. Gull is before the New Zealand-based petroleum distribution business of Ampol. Ampol is the former Caltex Australia, said IFR Asia.
Ampol sold Gull to Allegro for net cash around NZ$509m in an ASX filing. It included the assumption of approximately NZ$63m on debt-like items. After the ASX filing, Gull became subject to annual price reviews as well as termination rights over five-year fuel supply agreement with Ampol.
Then, in order to acquire Gull, Allegro must get approval from New Zealand’s Commerce Commission (NZCC) and Overseas Investment Office. Plus, it will get the final approval after Ampol completes acquisition of Z Energy. However the NZCC decision on the acquisition remains pending. The company expects the approval is ready in the first half of the year.
In order to support Z Energy acquisition, Ampol raises A$1.299bn new loans. The company extended its existing bilateral facilities as well as increased the total size by A$160m plus A$1.612bn. Last year in December, Ample had funding facilities for as much as A$3.6bn. It excluded the new acquisition loans and the net debt to Ebitda. Before Z Energy, Gull was Ampol’s whole subsidiaries, ALD Group Holdings NZ, Gull New Zealand and Terminals New Zealand.
