LAVAL, Quebec-- Ever since it stepped away from its hostile bid to purchase Casey's General Stores, Alimentation Couche-Tard has kept an uncharacteristically low profile. A company known for purchasing hundreds of convenience stores in one fell swoop was instead picking them up 24 stores at a time, 10 stores at a time, even one or two stores at a time without so much as a press release.
And so it was a return to form this week as Couche-Tard pulled the trigger on a 322-store acquisition from ExxonMobil and took the opportunity to slip in announcements of three other deals [image-nocss] into the press release, as if they should be expect as a matter of course.
On recent earnings calls, CEO Alain Bouchard has been more conservative in his proclamations of major deals to come, espousing a "disciplined approach" while promising incremental store growth.
"As always, we are looking at several acquisition opportunities that may prove to be interesting," Bouchard said during an earnings call in March. "We definitely don't want to favor store-count growth to the detriment of profitability."
So this week's news comes as a return-to-form punch as it highlights the company's desire to grow through both small jabs and poke as well as roundhouse blows to the gut.
In addition to the ExxonMobil deal (see related story in this issue of CSP Daily News), other recent acquisitions announced by Couche-Tard yesterday:
Mid-Atlantic Additions
Couche-Tard signed, through its wholly owned indirect subsidiary Mac's Convenience Stores LLC, an agreement to acquire 26 company-operated stores operating in the Mid-Atlantic region in the United States.
Assuming the closing of the transaction, which is scheduled for late this summer, the Couche-Tard will own the real estate for 25 sites while it would lease the other one. Pare would not say from whom the stores were purchased or identify the markets the stores are in.
Canadian Territory
Couche-Tard acquired through Mac's Convenience Stores 12 company-operated stores in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan and British-Columbia, Canada, from Shell Canada Products. Couche-Tard owns the land and buildings for seven sites and leases these same assets for five sites.
Bankruptcy Bidding
As previously reported in CSP Daily News, Couche-Tard acquired five company-operated stores operating under the banner Gas City, a chain of 51 stores that filed for bankruptcy protection in October (click here).
Although Couche-Tard was at one point a "stalking horse" for a majority of the sites in the bid proceedings, it walked away with one location in Arizona and four in the Chicago area. Couche-Tard acquired the land and buildings for three of these sites and leases the others.
"We're a growing company, by acquisition, by organic growth and using other ways to add value to our [company]," vice president and CFO Pare told yesterday. "We're looking to grow in any region. It's just a question of having an opportunity to have good assets available and come to an agreement.
Laval, Quebec-based Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc.'s network is comprised of 5,874 convenience stores, 4,169 of which include motor fuel dispensing, operated by 13 business units, including nine in the United States covering 42 states and the District of Columbia, and four in Canada covering all 10 provinces.
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