ISLAMABAD: Cnergyico Pk Ltd on Thursday annou­nced acquiring a majority stake in Puma Energy Pakistan Pvt Ltd and is set to become the country’s second-largest fuel retailer.

“Cnergyico Pk Ltd’s board of directors has approved the acquisition of 57.37 per cent shares of Puma Energy,” Cnergyico (formerly Byco Petroleum Pakistan Ltd) said in a statement on Thursday.

Puma Energy — a subsidiary of Singapore-based Puma Holdings Energy Pte Ltd — runs 542 petrol pumps and owns two storage terminals in Punjab’s Machike and Sindh’s Daulatpur that can together store up to 10,500 tonnes of petroleum products.

Bloomberg News reported on Wednesday that the deal was in the final stages, valuing the company at more than Rs4bn ($23m).

Puma Energy Holdings Pte is jointly owned by Geneva-based Trafigura and state-owned Sonangol Group of Angola. Market sources said Puma was reportedly annoyed over penalties and investigations following an oil crisis in June 2020 and Trafigura had also recently defaulted in LNG supplies to Pakistan.

Besides raising the storage capacity, the acquisition will increase the total number of petrol pumps under Cnergyico’s network from 440 to 982, making it the largest private fuel retailer in the country.

At present, state-owned Pakistan State Oil has the largest petrol station network of 3,500, followed by Total Parco Pakistan’s 800 outlets and Shell Pakistan’s 766 outlets.

Published in Dawn, January 14th, 2022