Applegreen moves into US mid-west with 46 new sites

Applegreen has made its first major acquisition in the mid-west of the US.

The company has agreed a 10-year lease for 46 petrol filling stations with convenience stores in the states of Michigan, Minnesota and Wisconsin, with a significant number of the sites concentrated in and close to the greater Minneapolis and St Paul metropolitan area.

No up-front consideration is required to be paid by Applegreen and the transaction is expected to be earnings accretive in 2019. Any additional capital investment in the portfolio will be funded from existing resources.

The new operation will be managed by Applegreen’s existing management team based in the north-east of the US, which will be supplemented with additional operational and finance personnel to integrate the sites into the Applegreen business.

Chief executive Bob Etchingham said: “Following significant acquisitions on the east coast of the USA in the past two years, we are delighted to announce our first major acquisition in the mid-west.

“We consider this group of sites to be a good fit for our business given the convenience of its locations centred in the large metropolitan area of Minneapolis-St. Paul. We believe that this acquisition represents an opportunity to establish a significant presence in another market in the US while leveraging our existing management and operational capabilities.”

Completion of the transaction is subject to a number of conditions and is expected to complete in the third quarter of 2019.