Esso Italiana agrees to sell fuel-related business unit to IP

Italiani Petroli (IP) – API Group, Italy’s leading private fuel and mobility company, has agreed to acquire the activities and assets of Esso Italiana S.r.l related to fuels and refining.  U.S.-based global energy company ExxonMobil is the parent company of Esso Italiana.

IP is owned by the Brachetti Peretti family, and has operated since 1933 in the Italian fuel and mobility sector. With more than 1,100 employees, a network of about 4,600 points of sale and logistic facilities in Italy, the Group is the leading private player in Italy. 

The operation includes the totality of Esso Italiana fuel sales activities in Italy, 75,0% of the SARPOM  Srl refinery in Trecate, located in the province of Novara, where IP already holds the remaining shares,  ownership of the Genoa, Arluno, and Chivasso depots, the Engycalor Energia Calore company—which controls the Naples bitumen depot and handles sales to business customers—and 12.5% of  Disma company, which manages the Malpensa Airport aviation fuel depot.  

The acquisition, which will have no impact on the upstream, lubricants and chemicals business conducted by Esso Italiana in Italy, is expected to close in mid-2023, subject to compliance with applicable legal conditions and requirements, including the conduct of consultations with workers’ representatives, as as well as the approval of competent authorities. Esso Italiana also operates a lubricant blending plant in Vado Ligure, which is not part of the transaction.

The transaction includes a long-term brand agreement whereby Esso-branded service stations in Italy will continue to offer Esso-branded marketing, loyalty, card and fuel programs. 

The acquisition represents a further consolidation of the group controlled by the Brachetti Peretti  family, following the acquisition of TotalErg which took place five years ago. The operation also  enhances the IP’s production volumes, doubling its refining capacity from around 5 to nearly 10 million tons per year.  

The scope of the operation does not include the 2,200 Esso-branded service stations, which had  already been sold to third parties between 2012 and 2018. The supply relationship following their sale through  “branded wholesaler” agreements will be transferred to IP. 

Ugo Brachetti Peretti, president of IP said the acquisition will allow the IP Group to “be joined by very high quality people, competencies and production assets.  We have made a great effort to finalise this operation, which will allow us to play a key role in facing  the challenge of energy security in the mobility sector and will enable the following steps of the  Group’s transition towards sustainability”. 

During the acquisition, CC & Soci was IP’s financial advisor. Legal M&A assistance was  handled by Gatti Pavesi Bianchi Ludovici while legal due diligence, tax and antitrust assistance were  respectively handled by Carabba & Partners and BonelliErede, in coordination with the company’s in-house functions.