COMMERCE CITY, Colo. – Offen Petroleum, a large Western fuel distributor that has pursued growth with the help of private equity, has been sold to another private-equity firm.
Based in Commerce City, Colo., Offen is a distributor of motor fuels and lubricants and a provider of petroleum logistics services in 14 states. In late 2017, private-equity firm Lariat Partners made a strategic investment in Offen Petroleum, which helped it double its distribution volumes partly through its acquisition of two other Western fuel distributors: Overland Petroleum in 2018 and Allied Energy in 2019.
As Bill Gallagher, founder and CEO of Offen Petroleum told CSP Daily News in 2018, the company’s longer-term goal was to grow its annual volumes to 5 billion gallons. With the Allied purchase, Offen reached more than 1 billion gallons.
But now growth will continue under a different private-equity firm. Lariat Partners has sold its ownership interest in Offen to New York-based Court Square Capital Partners.
Jay Coughlon, a managing partner and co-founder of Denver-based Lariat Partners, complimented Offen’s leadership team for its success. “It was a strong company with long-standing customer relationships and we knew it had tremendous future potential,” he said. “Working together, we were able to unleash that potential and with additional investment, it will continue to expand its geographic reach and serve its customers extremely well.”
Gallagher thanked Lariat for its help in accelerating Offen’s growth, and expected more opportunities with Court Square’s backing. “We are evaluating a robust pipeline of strategic add-on opportunities and our larger scale has further opened the doors to new organic growth prospects,” he said. “I appreciated my relationship with Lariat, and I look forward to working with the Court Square team as we build upon Offen’s already strong performance.”
Stephens Inc. served as the exclusive financial adviser to Offen Petroleum. Its investment banking specialty distribution and services team led the transaction. Barclays served as financial adviser to Court Square, and KeyBanc Capital Markets led on arranging the financing for the deal.
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