(Reuters) -UK’s Motor Fuel Group (MFG) is in talks with supermarket chain Morrisons for 340 fuel retail forecourts in a deal that could be worth about 2 billion pounds ($2.49 billion), the petrol stations giant said.
The company, in a statement to Reuters on Friday, said a deal would also include 500 freehold plots of land at the supermarket chain’s locations “where ultra-rapid electric vehicle (EV) and valeting hubs will be deployed.”
Motor Fuel Group is UK’s largest independent forecourt operator and provides services through over 900 sites while Morrisons is Britain’s fifth largest supermarket group.
Morrisons declined to comment on the deal.
Both Morrisons and MFG are controlled by the U.S. private equity group Clayton Dubilier & Rice (CD&R).
“MFG is already committed to invest 400 million pounds over 10 years into building ultra-rapid EV hubs across their existing 900-strong MFG forecourt network,” MFG’s statement said.
Sky News, which first reported the news, said an agreement between the two companies, both controlled by private equity firm Clayton Dubilier & Rice (CD&R), may likely be done during the autumn.
($1 = 0.8023 pounds)
(Reporting by Nilutpal Timsina and Rishabh Jaiswal in Bengaluru; additional reporting by Kanjyik Ghosh; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and Tomasz Janowski)
