DCC Energy to buy Shell’s LPG business in France for $519 million

By RAKTEEM KATAKEY
Bloomberg

Royal Dutch Shell will sell its French liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) business for about 464 million euros ($519 million) to DCC Energy, adding to more than $2 billion of disposals this year following the collapse in oil prices.

The Butagaz unit will give DCC Energy a quarter of France’s LPG market and make it Europe’s third-largest distributor of the fuel, it said in a statement Tuesday. Shell is exiting the LPG business globally and focusing its refining and fuel marketing operations on smaller areas, it said in a separate statement.

Shell CEO Ben Van Beurden is speeding up asset sales and spending curbs to cope with a slump in oil prices. The Anglo-Dutch company has sold oil fields in Nigeria, axed a $6.5 billion petrochemicals plant in Qatar and stalled a liquefied natural-gas (LNG) project in Australia.

In January, Shell said that it would cut $15 billion of investments over the next three years and curtail exploration.

DCC Energy is part of Dublin, Ireland-based DCC, which operates energy, technology and health care businesses.

DCC rose 9.6% to 4,811 pence by 8:47 a.m. in London. Shell’s B shares, the most widely traded, dropped 0.2%.

The deal is expected to be completed this year. Shell will continue its aviation fuel and lubricants businesses in France.

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