FINDLAY, Ohio — Marathon Petroleum Corp.'s sale of its Speedway retail convenience-store network to 7-Eleven Inc. will now close in the second quarter of 2021 rather than the first quarter as originally expected, the company said in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Marathon Petroleum “previously referenced the first quarter of 2021 as the target for closing the transaction, but now is targeting closing early in the second quarter of 2021, subject to customary closing conditions and the receipt of regulatory approvals,” the filing said. “7-Eleven and the company continue to engage productively with the Federal Trade Commission in its review of the transaction.”
Marathon Petroleum declined to offer further details, but spokesperson Jamal Kheiry told CSP Daily News, "7-Eleven and the FTC continue to make progress toward the completion of the process, and additional time is required." 7-Eleven did not respond immediately to a CSP Daily News request for comment.
The $21 billion transaction is set to be among the biggest in the history of the c-store industry. In August 2020, Marathon Petroleum Corp. entered into a definitive agreement to sell its 3,900-unit Speedway c-store chain to Irving, Texas-based 7-Eleven Inc., a wholly owned, indirect subsidiary of Seven & i, Tokyo. The deal includes a 15-year fuel supply agreement.
Earlier this month, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters called on the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to “pause” its antitrust review of the proposed sale, “until the agency has time to interpret, integrate and employ the antitrust legislation currently making its way through Congress, or at a very minimum, ensure that all competitive effects from the transaction have been fully considered and remedied.”
The FTC has not issued a public statement on the union’s request.
Marathon Petroleum is an integrated, downstream energy company based in Findlay, Ohio. Its Speedway subsidiary, based in Enon, Ohio, is the third-largest c-store chain in the United States, according to CSP’s 2021 Top 40 Update to the 2020 Top 202 ranking of U.S. c-store chains by store count.
Irving, Texas-based 7-Eleven operates, franchises or licenses more than 71,100 7-Eleven c-stores in 17 countries, including more than 9,300 in the United States. It is No. 1 in the CSP Top 202 ranking.
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