After having fulfilled the suspensive conditions, Petrol has closed the acquisition of a 100% business share in the Crodux Derivati Dva at the price of EUR 191.7m.

We note that this is quite in line with our expectation for a 100% share, which was at EUR 183m.

At the same time, Petrol will assume a net financial debt to banks in the amount of EUR 19.2m. The purchase and refinancing of the assumed debts are financed with an international syndicated loan of EUR 200m organized by NLB in cooperation with PBZ.

The transaction closing will be followed by the integration of Crodux into the Petrol Group and the subsequent merger of the acquired company with Petrol Zagreb, which is expected to be finalized by the end of 2022. The Petrol Group is this way consolidating its position as the second-largest petroleum product provider in Croatia.

As a reminder, the deal was signed on 12 January 2021 with the seller, Mr Ivan Čermak, while with the deal, Petrol is acquiring 91 service stations. With over 200 points of sale, the market share of the Petrol Group in Croatia will increase from 13% to 23%. The core business activity of CRODUX comprises import, storage, retail sale and wholesale of petroleum products in the Republic of Croatia. It has more than 1,150 employees.

In the SEE region, the Petrol Group will now have a total of 594 points of sale. The company notes that Crodux’ EBITDA for 2021 is estimated at EUR 37m (without IFRS 16 effect), which is in line with our estimates. To put thing’s into a perspective, this would imply the transaction multiple of EV/EBITDA (2021) of 5.7x.

The acquisition of Crodux is the largest transaction of Petrol in the past 10 years and represents the most significant one-time increase in the number of points of sale in the Group’s history.