LAVAL, Quebec -- Serial acquirer Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. has just completed the sixth-largest acquisition in a long history of big deals in North America and around the world that includes Circle K and The Pantry.
The Canadian retail giant has closed the acquisition of A/S Dansk Shell’s downstream retail business in Denmark. The companies announced the deal in late March 2016.
The transaction has received the appropriate regulatory approvals and the company has completed all final closing requirements.
Following divestments as conditions of the sale, Couche-Tard’s network in Denmark will include a total of 286 company operated-stores, 153 company-owned and dealer operated and 44 dealer owned and dealer operated. It includes 211 automated sites.
Counting the 315 sites that were part of the original deal with A/S Dansk Shell, the acquisition is the sixth largest in Couche-Tard’s history. According to Laval, Quebec-based Couche-Tard’s website, the larger deals include:
- 2,300 c-stores acquired with the purchase of Statoil Fuel & Retail in Europe.
- 1,663 Circle K convenience stores purchased from ConocoPhillps in 2003.
- 1,500 c-stores in the U.S. Southeast acquired as part of the purchase of The Pantry Inc. in 2015.
- 980 c-stores acquired with the purchase of Canada’s Silcorp Ltd. in 1999.
- 444 sites purchased from Topaz Energy Group in 2016.
As of January 2016, Couche-Tard’s network included 7,979 convenience stores throughout North America, including 6,560 stores offering road transportation fuel. Its North American network consists of 15 business units, including 11 in the United States covering 41 states (primarily under the Circle K and The Pantry’s Kangaroo Express brands) and four in Canada covering all 10 provinces (primarily under the Mac’s and Couche-Tard brands).
In Europe, Couche-Tard operates a broad retail network across Scandinavia (Norway, Sweden and Denmark), Poland, the Baltics (Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania) and Russia. As of January 2016, it included 2,218 stores, the majority of which offer road transportation fuel and convenience-store products, while the others are unmanned automated fuel stations. Couche-Tard also offers other products, including stationary energy, marine fuel and chemicals. Couche-Tard operates key fuel terminals and fuel depots in six European countries.
Since its acquisition of Topaz Energy Group Ltd. in February 2016, Couche-Tard also operates a convenience-store and fuel retailing network the includes 444 gas stations in Ireland as well as a significant commercial fuels operation, with more than 30 depots and two terminals.
In addition, independent parties operate approximately 1,500 convenience stores under the Circle K banner in 13 other countries or regions worldwide (China, Costa Rica, Egypt, Guam, Honduras, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Macau, Malaysia, Mexico, the Philippines, the United Arab Emirates and Vietnam).
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