Essar Energy Transition Retail has agreed to acquire UK forecourt operator SGN Retail for £250 million, adding 118 sites to its existing network and creating a 235-location fuel retail platform with annual throughput of more than 650 million litres.
The transaction, announced on September 14, will give EET Retail, part of Cheshire-based Essar Energy Transition Fuels, full ownership of SGN Retail. The company said the acquisition would establish a scaled, nationwide mobility platform spanning fuel forecourts across the UK.
EET Retail’s existing estate comprises 117 forecourts. With the SGN Retail locations, the combined network will become the second-largest UK forecourt network that is backwardly integrated with fuel production, according to Essar Energy Transition.
The acquisition will be financed through a combination of cash and a new £250 million senior debt facility. The facility has been arranged by a bank group comprising First Abu Dhabi Bank, Macquarie Bank, Mizrahi Tefahot Bank, Natixis, OakNorth Bank, Royal Bank of Canada, SMBC Bank International and Sound Point Capital Management.
Essar said the deal forms part of EET Retail’s plan to expand its direct domestic fuel supply network to 800 UK forecourts by 2031. The company said that target would represent approximately 9 per cent of the UK market share, although the announcement did not provide a breakdown of the present market shares of EET Retail or SGN Retail.
The company linked its expansion strategy to demographic growth, the rise of multi-car households and a decline in the number of forecourts in the UK. It described these trends as creating an attractive outlook for investment in the forecourt sector.
The transaction also places fuel distribution infrastructure at the centre of Essar’s stated UK strategy. The company said fuel refined at the Stanlow refinery could be rerouted directly into EET Retail forecourts, allowing refined fuel to be distributed more efficiently to domestic consumers and improving domestic supply security.
Essar’s model combines fuel manufacturing with retail distribution, rather than treating forecourts only as standalone sales locations. The proposed expansion therefore connects the company’s refinery operations with a larger consumer-facing network, although the announcement did not specify how the acquired sites would be rebranded, whether operations would change immediately or when completion of the transaction is expected.
The company said the acquisition would accelerate its long-term roadmap. Further details on the completion process, operational integration and the treatment of SGN Retail’s existing sites were not included in the announcement.
