Refiner and fuel retailer Caltex Australia is seeing a slump in fuel demand amid widespread social restrictions and business closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Caltex Australia will not be acquired by fuel retailer Alimentation Couche-Tard, at least in the short term, after talks about an $8.8 billion deal were put on ice.
Britain's EG Group had offered to acquire Caltex Australia for $3.9 billion in cash and separate shares to be issued in a newly listed company on the ASX.
Caltex stocks jumped more than three per cent in early trade after it received a improved $8.8 billion buyout proposal from Alimentation Couche-Tard to acquire all its shares at an indicative price of $35.25.
Caltex Australia has reached an agreement with Alimentation Couche-Tard that will allow it to disclose confidential information in relation to the Montreal-based global convenience store chain's $8.6 billion takeover offer.
Caltex Australia says it has been approached by a number of parties about a potential acquisition, but so far the only formal takeover offer it has received is the one made in November by a Canadian retail chain.
Caltex Australia is planning a $500 million capital raising and the sale of an initial 25 petrol stations for $136 million as it contends with an unsolicited approach from its Canadian suitor.
Caltex Australia says the $8.6 billion unsolicited takeover offer from Canadian convenience store operator Alimentation Couche-Tard undervalues the company.
Caltex Australia says it is considering selling part of its convenience retail assets valued at $2 billion, even as higher costs kept its first-half profit at the lower end of its guidance.
Fuel refiner and retailer Caltex Australia expects its underlying profit to fall by about 20 per cent because of weaker margins in its refining operations.
Struggling retailer Woolworths is considering offloading its petrol stations, not long after striking deals to rid itself of its loss-making hardware business.
Property syndicator APiL says it only took a matter of days to raise the equity required to buy Ballajura Central shopping centre from Charter Hall REIT.
LandCorp has released the biggest lot at its Crossroads Industrial Estate in Forrestdale to market, with the agency expecting significant demand from both owner-occupiers and developers for the sit
Transfield Services has signed an agreement to provide multidiscipline implementation services on the offshore facilities of the Woodside Petroleum-operated North West Shelf project.
