Vivo Energy has announced it has reached an agreement on the terms of a recommended cash offer under which Vitol will be acquiring the entire issued and to be issued share capital of Vivo. Vitol will only be acquiring the shares it does not already own in Vivo Energy, via a BidCo, a company indirectly owned by Vitol Investment Partnership II Ltd.
The total cash value of the deal is valued at $2.3bn. In December 2020, Vivo Energy’s key shareholders included Vitol (36.1%), Helios Investment Partners (27.23%) and Petronas Marketing International (3.93%).
The announcement follows several attempts by the Vitol Group to acquire Helios Investment Partners’ shares in Vivo Energy. “Following a series of negotiations, BidCo and Helios agreed a price at which both parties would be willing to transact at a purchase price of US$1.79 per Vivo Share,” Vivo Energy said in a statement.
Both companies were partners and founding shareholders of Vivo Energy, a company born of Shell’s divestment from all its African fuel retailing business in 2011. Vivo eventually completed an initial public offering in May 2018, pursuant to which its shares were admitted to trading on the Main Market of the London Stock Exchange and admitted to listing on the Official List, with a secondary listing on the Main Board of the JSE.