(Finance) – The Competition and Market Guarantor Authority (AGCM) gave the green light for the acquisition by IP (API group) of Esso’s activities in Italy, according to what is reported in today’s Bulletin of the AGCM. The authorization by the Antitrust took place on the condition that Italiana Petroli “give full and effective execution” of ad a number of conditions. In summary, the group led by the Brachetti Peretti family will have to provide for the provision of transit and storage capacity on the Sigemi logistics system (in the north-west) to third parties; the making available to third parties of petrol volumes in Naples, LPG and kerosene in Trecate and the possibility of releasing a part, up to 30% of the supply, exclusively for Esso distributors supplied by IP in some areas of the country.
Without these remedies, the investigation had in fact ascertained that the concentration would have been likely to significantly impede competition effective, also through the creation or strengthening of a dominant position, in 17 extra-network local markets (11 of the B2B type and 6 of the B2C type) and 537 local network markets (of which 532 on the ordinary network and 5 on the motorway network) .
The API group operates at an integrated level in the downstream petroleum cycle, from the procurement of crude oil, to refining, logistics, up to the distribution and sale of products, both on the ordinary network (road and motorway) and on the extra-network (wholesale and retail). In 2022, the consolidated turnover of the API Group amounted to approx 9.2 billion eurosmainly made in Italy.
It Italian is a company active in the downstream sector of refining, marketing and distribution of petroleum products. It is currently present in the retail market through an organizational model of the so-called branded wholesaler (given that in February 2018 it completed the transition by divesting all the points of sale on the road and motorway network it owns). The consolidated worldwide turnover of the ESSO group amounted to approximately 398.6 billion euros in 2022, of which approximately 11.5 billion euros made exclusively in Italy.
The transaction under AGMC’s examination consists of IP’s acquisition of sole control of a newly incorporated company into which ESSO will contribute its downstream oil business, excluding the lubricants and chemicals business. A the agreement between the parties was signed on 20 December 2022. ESSO undertook, in particular, to contribute to the NewCo: its downstream oil assets still present in Italy (net of the lubricants and chemical products branch); its holdings in the companies Sarpom (75.04%), Engycalor (100%) and Disma (12.5%); its contracts for the supply of bitumen and other products (petrol and diesel); all its logistics assets, hydrocarbon warehouse and working capital.