DCC to Acquire BP's Dutch LPG Business

Irish-owned DCC is to expand into the Benelux region with its third massive acquisition in recent months, BP's liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) business in the Netherlands and Belgium.

The company said today that it had reached a provisional agreement with BP Gas Nederland to take over subsidiary Benegas, a company that acts as an LPG distributor in the Netherlands and which holds a smaller distribution business in North Belgium. 

The acquisition will be made at a cost of €24.5 million and, depending on approval from the relevant authorities, will be completed by the end of this year. Through the acquisition, DCC will gain access to 44 staff as well as to an annual supply 55,000 tonnes per annum of bulk, cylinder and aerosol LPG to a broad range of industrial, commercial and domestic customers.

This is the second major deal DCC has made with BP in the last two months and its third major deal in recent months. Last month, DCC announced that it would acquire BP's LPG in the UK at a cost of €51.3 million, giving it access to approximately 87,000 tonnes of LPG in Britain. Earlier this month, the company also announced that it was acquiring Statoil's LPG business in Sweden and Norway, giving it access to sales of around 260,000 tonnes a year.

Chief Executive of DCC, Tommy Breen, said the acquisition was part of a concerted effort on DCC's part to expand its LPG business across Europe.

"DCC has committed total expenditure of approximately €100 million in recent weeks to the expansion of our LPG business through the acquisitions of BP's LPG business in Britain, the Statoil Fuel & Retail LPG business in Scandinavia and now Benegas," he said. "These acquisitions significantly increase the scale and geographic scope of DCC's LPG business in Europe."