Petroplus International NV, Amsterdam, on Monday said it completed its acquisition of Royal Dutch/Shell Group's Cressier refinery and associated assets in Switzerland.
The deal will double Petroplus' refining capacity, significantly increase marketing volumes, and add up to 875,000 cu m of additional nonrefinery storage capacity, said Marcel van Poecke and Willem Willemstein, joint managing directors of Petroplus. They also expect the acquisition to enhance earnings and cash flow per share starting with the first full year of ownership.
Announced in December 1999, the deal will give Petroplus the 68,000 Cressier refinery, Shell's wholesale commercial sales operations in Switzerland, storage depots in that country, and Shell's share in the pipelines that supply the refinery. Petroplus is acquiring the assets from Shell for about $131 million, or 15% of the estimated replacement value.
Shell Switzerland is retaining its motor gasoline retail, aviation fuel, and LPG marketing operations. Petroplus has entered into long-term contracts for the supply of these products to Shell.
