Petrogas has announced that it intends to float with the aim of raising £50m to fund expansion of the business and upgrades of existing sites.

It also revealed that it will be renaming the company, using its Applegreen brand name instead, so Petrogas Global Limited will become Applegreen plc.

The Irish company currently owns about 100 sites in the Irish Republic, and was ranked fifth in the Forecourt Trader Top 50 Indies with 54 UK sites. It also owns two sites in Long Island in the US.

Bob Etchingham, CEO of Applegreen, said: "We are delighted to announce our intention to float, which will provide an important platform to pursue our long-term growth strategy. We believe there are significant opportunities for expansion across the Republic of Ireland and the UK.

"The intended IPO will enable us to execute on our growth strategy and further expand and rebrand our portfolio of sites."

In its statement the company said the proceeds of the flotation would be used to fund:

an upgrade and rebrand of up to 70 sites across the group’s existing network of sites in Ireland and the UK;

to accelerate expansion in Ireland and the UK which currently stands at about 20 sites a year both by number of sites and by geography;

to develop new service area sites in Ireland and the UK;

to take advantage of other opportunities that may arise including building a platform for growth in the US and opportunistic acquisitions of portfolios of sites that may become available.

It is expected that the flotation of the company will take place in the second half of June.