Sale of OMV service stations in Germany completed - AVIA takes over 46 stations

Austrian energy and chemicals group OMV has completed the sale of its service station business in Germany effective May 1, 2022. In February, the German Federal Cartel Office had approved the planned acquisition of the service station network of OMV Retail Deutschland GmbH by the British EG Group Ltd. subject to conditions.

The sale of 285 service stations, mostly located in Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg, was contractually agreed. However, the Federal Cartel Office had imposed the condition that 48 sites in southern Germany were to be sold to third parties. The antitrust watchdogs had feared a deterioration in competitive conditions in southern Germany. This condition was met, and 24 Esso and 24 OMV sites in Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria were sold. AVIA took over 46 of these stations. According to the German AVIA Group in Munich, the purchase agreements have been signed. The buyers are individual shareholders of the medium-sized AVIA, an association of 31 medium-sized companies. Under the AVIA brand, 833 service stations are operated in Germany (as of Dec. 31, 2021).

The agreed purchase price amounts to €485 million, and EG will assume outstanding leasing obligations as part of the deal.

OMV had justified the sale of its German service station business on the grounds that the service stations and Bavaria and Baden-Württemberg would only be supplied with small volumes from the Bavarian refinery in Burghausen. In addition to middle distillates such as kerosene, diesel and heating oil, the refinery mainly produces petrochemical feedstocks. All the gasoline cut goes into the production of ethylene, propylene and butadiene.