LEXINGTON, Ky. — In a move to optimize its portfolio and facilitate ongoing and future acquisitions as well as building new-to-industry convenience stores, Estepp Energy LLC has executed debt refinancing, acquisition financing and growth capital raising.
“This capital raise was a key step in the second phase of a transformative two-pronged acquisition that began late last year. The debt financing sourced in this project will provide us with the flexibility to optimize our portfolio and enhance cash flows via the exercise of certain purchase options negotiated through our acquisition of Cumberland Lake Shell, consolidate/refinance our existing debt and support our long-term growth objectives with a development line and new long-term lending relationships,” Steve Estepp, founder of the Lexington, Ky.-based company, said.
“Some of the facility was was used to acquire real property through purchase options negotiated with Cumberland, and there is a large development credit facility for future acquisitions and NTIs, and it was a refinancing of all prior loans held by the company, ” said Andy Weber, founder of Corner Capital Advisors LLC, which served as sole financial advisor to Estepp Energy & Affiliates, which includes Estepp Energy, Estepp Friendly Shell Inc. and Estepp Land Paris LLC.
Steve Estepp learned the fuel and c-store business from the ground up: working the cash register, stocking coolers, pulling weeds and all the other jobs “that make a convenience store go,” he said. Prior to the founding of Estepp Energy, his father operated convenience stores in the Lexington area since 1975.
Estepp founded the company as a wholesale fuel distributor in 2012 with the acquisition of an existing Shell jobber, then set the business on a course for growth via acquisitions, new builds, the expansion of the dealer wholesale/transportation business and by developing a portfolio of franchise restaurants including Little Caesars, Subway and Hot Head Burritos.
Estepp Energy & Affiliates now operates more than 10 convenience retail locations, operates bulk plant facilities, leases locations to branded dealer operators and will distribute more than 80 million gallons of Shell, Marathon, Sunoco, BP, 76, and unbranded petroleum products to more than 130 dealer and commercial customers in central Kentucky.
In 2018, Shell used an Estepp site in Lexington as a pilot for its Shell Select concept store in the United States.
Corner Capital Advisors, Austin, Texas, provided financing and capital advisory services to Estepp, which included valuation advisory, intensive financial modeling, the compilation and presentation of consolidated financial statements, along with capital sourcing, structuring and negotiation.
“I’ve known Steve and his family for more than 20 years, since my time at Shell,” said Rob Thomas, senior vice president of business development for Corner Capital. “They’ve built an incredible business and we are happy that they have secured the capital and lending relationships to support their long-term growth objectives.”
Sean Stewart, director at Corner Capital, added that Estepp has “an incredible story, starting from a Shell dealer with one location to almost 100 million gallons and growing.”
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