Petroplus

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Petroplus Holdings AG

logo
legal form Corporation
founding 1993/2006
Seat Zug , Switzerland
Number of employees 2,575 (2010)
sales 20.735 billion US dollars (2010)
Branch Petroleum industry

The Petroplus Holdings AG , based in train was a publicly traded, international company of the oil refining industry. Founded in 1993, it pursued an ambitious growth strategy and acquired several petroleum refineries in Europe. In just a few years, Petroplus became the largest independent refinery group, employing over 2,500 people and generating sales of more than $ 20 billion. Due to the saturation of the market, the company ran into financial difficulties and had to file for bankruptcy in 2012 .

history

Rapid expansion

The company was founded in 1993 as Petroplus International BV in the Netherlands and was listed on the Amsterdam Stock Exchange in 1998 . The business model was to buy oil refineries on credit , to bundle them and sell them to third parties at a profit. First, in 2000, Petroplus acquired the refineries in Cressier (Switzerland) and Teesside (Great Britain). The RIVR Acquisition BV , a subsidiary of the holding company RIVR Holding BV , bought the majority of shares in Petroplus on March 17 of 2005. The private equity companies Riverstone and Carlyle Group were involved in this holding company . As a result, the remaining shareholders was a takeover bid and Petroplus on 19 April 2005 by the Euro Next delisted .

Argus Atlantic Energy Limited was founded in Bermuda on February 20, 2006 . After the entire management of Petroplus had been changed in May of the same year, Argus was merged with RIVR Acquisition through a share swap. On August 22, 2006, Argus moved its headquarters to Zug, Switzerland, and changed its name to Petroplus Holdings AG . As a result of the share swap, RIVR Holding BV held a 94.5% stake in Petroplus Holdings AG . On November 30, 2006, the “new” company went public , which was then listed on the SIX Swiss Exchange in Zurich under the symbol PPHN and in the Swiss Performance Index (SPI). The price per share was set in a bookbuilding process with a price range between 55 and 68 Swiss francs . Calculated using the mean, the newly issued 18 million shares corresponded to newly raised capital of around 1.107 billion francs, which together with the existing 22 million shares added up to a subscription volume of 2.46 billion francs. This made Petroplus the largest on the Swiss stock exchange since 2001.

Petroplus Holdings AG raised additional capital on April 13, 2007 to finance further expansion. A total of 7.6 million shares were issued, increasing the share capital to just over 630 million francs. At that time, the company had assets in the UK (Teesside and Coryton refineries ), Germany ( Ingolstadt refinery ), Belgium (BRC Antwerp refinery ) and Switzerland ( Cressier refinery ). The entry into France announced in August 2007 through the takeover of the Shell refineries in Petit-Couronne and Reichstett was completed on April 1, 2008. Due to pending investments in Teesside, Petroplus decided not to continue the refinery operation, took the plant out of operation in the second quarter of 2009 and converted it into a pure sales and storage facility in the course of 2010.

According to a press release issued by the company on April 9, 2010, Petroplus was interested in acquiring the refinery in Delaware City operated by the US group Valero Energy , including an attached power plant with a capacity of 218 megawatts. The deal didn't materialize, however, and Valero instead sold the facility to PPF Energy in June 2010. The refinery in Reichstett was decommissioned in April 2011 and thereafter only operated as a terminal.

Bankruptcy and Liquidation

At the time of the IPO, the European refineries were still experiencing capacity bottlenecks and the prospects seemed ideal. Through acquisitions valued at over $ 2.2 million, Petroplus quickly became the largest independent refinery group and employed over 2500 people. However, the business model was unsuccessful because the market was saturated after six years. Because of the difficult economic situation in the wake of the global financial crisis , oil consumption declined. In contrast to the large oil companies, Petroplus did not have its own production facilities and therefore had to buy the raw material on the market at high prices. In addition, the systems were technically outdated.

When several banks blocked loans totaling one billion dollars for the company at the end of 2013, the long-term tense financial situation worsened into an existential crisis. Petroplus announced the closure of the three refineries Cressier, Petit-Couronne and Antwerp at the beginning of 2012, as there were no longer enough liquid funds to purchase the crude oil required for refining. On January 20, 2012, Petroplus announced its intention to sell the Petit-Couronne site. Negotiations with the lenders failed 24 January 2012, after which the application for Petroplus moratorium in Switzerland and the relevant insolvency proceedings prepared for the foreign subsidiaries. One day later, the company filed for bankruptcy, the bankruptcy proceedings were opened on April 4, 2012, and share trading on the stock exchanges ceased on May 24, 2012.

The plants still owned by Petroplus were sold to other companies until May 2012. By contrast, the liquidation process dragged on over several years. After a settlement was reached with the participating banks in March 2016, with which they could hold themselves harmless, a schedule of claims was available two months later . In total, claims totaling 6.3 billion francs were received. By September 2016, the claims secured by the pledge as well as the claims of the first and second class creditors had been paid in full (a total of 66.5 million francs). A discount dividend was agreed for the third-class creditors, which ranged between 21.97 and 23.48% of the claims. In contrast, the shareholders lost all of their capital.

Investments

In the course of its business, Petroplus had facilities in the following locations:

Switzerland
  • Cressier : Shell refinery acquired in May 2000, sold to Varo Energy Holding on May 23, 2012.
Great Britain
  • Teesside : Refinery owned since December 2000, out of operation since second quarter of 2009 (terminal operation)
  • Coryton : BP refinery acquired on May 31, 2007
Belgium
  • Antwerp : BRC refinery acquired on May 31, 2006, sold to Gunvor on February 2, 2012
Germany
France
  • Petit-Couronne : Shell refinery acquired on March 31, 2008, sold to Royal Dutch Shell on February 24, 2012
  • Reichstett : Shell refinery taken over on March 31, 2008, out of operation since June 2011 (terminal operation by Rubis )

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Petroplus Annual Report 2010. (PDF, 6.2 MB) media.corporate-ir.net, 2011, p. 2 , accessed on November 10, 2018 .
  2. ↑ a b «Worst scenario has occurred». Neue Zürcher Zeitung , January 24, 2012, accessed on November 10, 2018 .
  3. ↑ RIVR Obtains 95.05% of Petroplus Shares; Petroplus Shareholders Can Still Tender until April 6, 2005. Carlyle Group , March 16, 2005, accessed November 10, 2018 .
  4. ↑ Petroplus Holdings AG in liquidation. Commercial register office of the Canton of Zug, accessed on November 10, 2018 .
  5. ↑ Swiss oil refiner Petroplus raises $ 2.4 bln in IPO. Reuters , January 20, 2007, accessed November 10, 2018 .
  6. ↑ Petroplus Annual Report 2007. (PDF, 8.2 MB) media.corporate-ir.net, 2008, p. 59 , accessed on November 10, 2018 .
  7. ^ Petroplus Completes Purchase of Petit Couronne and Reichstett Vendenheim Refineries. Business Wire, April 1, 2008, accessed November 10, 2018 .
  8. ↑ a b Annual Report 2010, page 13
  9. ↑ Petroplus: Takeover of the Delaware City refinery by the investment company PBF completed. finanzen.net, June 1, 2010, accessed November 10, 2018 .
  10. ↑ L'avenir de Petroplus Reichstett tranché le 17 septembre. L'usine nouvelle, July 2, 2012, accessed November 10, 2018 (French).
  11. ↑ Petroplus wants to sell another location. Handelszeitung , January 20, 2012, accessed on November 10, 2018 .
  12. ↑ Refinery operator Petroplus is about to end. Handelszeitung , January 24, 2012, accessed on November 10, 2018 .
  13. ↑ Petroplus files for bankruptcy. Process Vogel, January 25, 2012, accessed November 10, 2018 .
  14. ↑ Petroplus announces date of delisting and extensions to the exemption from certain regulatory reporting and publicity requirements. phx.corporate-ir.net, May 11, 2012, accessed November 10, 2018 .
  15. ↑ Soon, money for Petroplus creditors. Neue Zürcher Zeitung , May 11, 2016, accessed on November 10, 2018 .
  16. ^ Money for Petroplus creditors. Neue Zürcher Zeitung , September 14, 2016, accessed on November 10, 2018 .
  17. ^ Petroplus refinery in Cressier saved. Tages-Anzeiger , May 3, 2012, accessed November 10, 2018 .
  18. ^ Petroplus completes purchase of Coryton Refinery. Port of London Authority , June 4, 2007, accessed November 10, 2018 .
  19. ↑ Petroplus refinery goes to Gunvor concern. Handelszeitung , March 2, 2012, accessed November 10, 2018 .
  20. ↑ Gunvor buys German Petroplus refinery. Handelszeitung , May 31, 2012, accessed on November 10, 2018 .
  21. ^ Shell saves French Petroplus refinery. Tages-Anzeiger , February 24, 2012, accessed November 10, 2018 .
  22. ↑ Bas-Rhin: la refinery de Reichstett fermera le 30 juin (Petroplus). Le Parisien , March 31, 2011, accessed November 10, 2018 (French).