Superior Acquires Another US Heating Oil Conglomerate
Posted by Josh Garrett on January 20, 2010 at 11:54 am
Superior Plus CEO Grant Billing will now have a handful of US heating oil businesses to look after. (image: providentenergy.com)
This fall Canadian propane giantSuperior Plusmade a bold entry into the US heating oil market, purchasingSunoco Retail Heat(Sunoco’s heating oil and propane distribution service) in September andGriffith Energy Services(a retail fuel distributor in Connecticut, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island) in November. On Wednesday morning theWall Street Journalreportedthat Superior has made another acquisition to expand its distribution in upstate New York, this time purchasing Griffith Holdings Inc.—not to be confused with Griffith Energy Services—for US$125 million.
Superior’s announcement of the deal today included expectations that the acquisition of Griffith Holdings will add approximately five Canadian cents per share to the company’s adjusted operating cash flow (AOCF). However, Superior also scaled back its overall AOCF forecast for 2010, reducing it to C$1.95-C$2.15 per share from the previous estimate of C$2.05-C$2.25. The reduction of AOCF expectations is a result of reduced demand tied to the economic downturn, and is not related to the acquisition of Griffith Holdings, Superior CEO Grant Billing told analysts on a conference call,the Canadian Press reported:
We are seeing signs of improvement in all of our customer bases and our businesses, but it is difficult to measure exactly how quickly that is going to come along. It has certainly been slower than we have hoped, and I’m sure many have hoped.
Griffith Holdings is a wholesaler and retailer of heating oil, propane, and motor fuels with 27 retail locations, most of which are located in upstate New York. Its location, adjacent to service areas that Superior acquired from Sunoco and Griffith Energy (in New York and New England), make it a natural target for absorption by Superior, which will bring its long history in propane sales and distribution south of the Canadian border.
But the focus of Superior as it moves into the US is on heating oil, with stated plans to continue expanding throughout the region’s fragmented heating oil market by buying up more heating oil distributors in the future. “Our first priority will be in consolidating our existing three U.S. heating oil businesses,” Billing said. On the subject of acquiring additional US heating oil dealerships, he explained, “We don’t see that as something we necessarily need to do in the short term, but we’ll certainly continue to look at that as we go through the year.”
So what does the deal mean for heating oil dealers and consumers?
As Billing’s statements clearly indicate, Superior will be on the hunt for new heating oil acquisition targets as soon as this year, so independent dealers around the Northeast (especially in Griffith Holdings’ former territory of northern New York state) looking to sell may have an enthusiastic buyer before too long.
Assuming expansion plans go smoothly, consumers can expect some consolidation of local heating oil dealers into Superior’s hands. Although that consolidation will likely have little effect on heating oil prices, heating oil dealers backed by a massive corporation enjoy a much lower risk of running out of cash and shutting down, leaving their customers in the cold.