McALLEN, Texas -- The U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas approved on Tuesday the sale of Aziz Convenience Stores LLC and its assets to Sunoco LP's Susser Petroleum Property Co. LLC, for $41.6 million, Harold J. Bordwin, principal and managing director of Keen-Summit Capital Partners LLC, New York, told CSP Daily News.
McAllen, Texas-based Aziz has 28 convenience stores throughout Hidalgo County in southern Texas under the Quick Stop name.
In August 2014, following unstable sales due to the economic downturn, Aziz filed for a voluntary petition for relief and a motion for an auction under Chapter 11 of the U.S. bankruptcy code. The company explored opportunities to emerge from bankruptcy that included not only the sale of the company's convenience stores, but also transactions such as the sale-leaseback of the stores, recapitalization, refinancing, joint-venture partnership and more.
On April 30, 2015, Aziz entered into a purchase-and-sale agreement with Susser Petroleum Property to sell the business and related assets for $28 million plus the value of fuel inventory, supplies inventory and merchandise inventory.
The court approves Susser Petroleum Property as the stalking-horse bidder on May 21, 2015, with the minimum bid set at $29.6 million.
“We had three bidders,” said Bordwin. “Circle K [Stores Inc.] was the backup bidder, submitting the next highest bid” at $41.5 million. “But there was aggressive bidding going on by all three parties. It was a very successful sale process for the company, and we had the right people in the room who wanted to buy the company.”
While Bordwin would not name the company, a source with knowledge of the deal told CSP Daily News that the third bidder was Westlake, Ohio-based TravelCenters of America.
Aziz store and property highlights include store sizes ranging from 2,200 to 10,400 square feet, with an average of 3,787 square feet and property sizes ranging from 0.49 to 4.10 acres, with an average of 1.22 acres.
The stores include 11 to 18 walk-in coolersper location, with an average of 15 per location. The sites have between four and 13 gasoline pumps per location, with an average of five per location.
Corpus Christi, Texas-based Susser Petroleum Property is part of Houston-based Sunoco LP following the acquisition of Susser by Sunoco's parent, Energy Transfer Partners LP (ETP), Dallas.
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