S-Oil has been named the priority bidder by United Petroleum (UP), an oil retailer in Australia, to buy a stake in UP, S-Oil said recently.
The oil refiner in Korea said it participated in a bidding for a stake in UP and won exclusive right to negotiate with UP to buy around 30 percent of the oil retailer said to be worth about 300 billion won.
UP operates about 300 service stations in Australia and is the largest oil distributor in that country aside from such oil majors as Caltex, BP, and Shell whose turnover amounted to around 2 trillion won last year.
S-Oil jumped into the race to buy a stake in the Australian oil retailer last year in competition with five multinational oil companies including Puma Oil. SK Energy also submitted papers to join the bidding, but never did placed an official bid.
S-Oil will be able to create considerable synergy if it takes over a 30 percent stake in UP as the oil refiner has already been dealing with the Australian company by concluding an agreement with its affiliate United Terminal to supply 1.7 trillion won worth of oil products such as gasoline and diesel to be sold in Australia through UP’s gas stations.
S-Oil shipped $2 billion worth of oil products to Australia in 2012, accounting for around 65 percent of all oil products exported from Korea.
Oil industry sources said Australia has emerged as a large importer of finished oil products lately as it has been closing down some of its oil refining facilities and importing downstream oil products from overseas in increasing quantities, emerging as an attractive oil market, especially for domestic oil refineries suffering from reduced profit margins on their refined oil products.
In the meantime, S-Oil’s major stakeholder Aramco has decided to take over a 28.4 percent stake in S-Oil from Hanjin Group for around 2 trillion won recently. S-Oil President Nasser Al Mahasher said Aramco would not have decided to go for the stake if it didn’t have a deep trust in the host government’s fairness toward foreign firms operating in Korea.
For an eighth consecutive year since 2007, S-Oil held a charity event subbed “Sharing Tteokguk with S-Oil” at Kwangya Church in Yeongdeungpo, Seoul, on Jan. 29, the day before the Lunar New Year. In addition, the refiner donated a new van to Kwangya Church for people living in the area to help their outpatient treatment, grocery delivery, etc.
At the church’s free meal center for the homeless, S-Oil CEO Al-Mahasher and some 100 S-Oil officers and employees made Tteokguk (rice cake soup) themselves and offered it to about 500 people, including old people living alone in single-room occupancy housing, disabled people, and homeless people around the area. In addition, they delivered a New Year gift package, which contained rice cake, beef, tangerines, ramen noodles, and more to 500 households living in single-room occupancy housing near Yeongdeungpo Station.
“I am very pleased to eat Tteokguk, the representative national holiday food of Korea, along with local residents and to help with their preparation for the Lunar New Year for two years in a row,” said CEO Al-Mahasher, who delivered a gift package in person to people living alone in single-room occupancy housing and offered Tteokguk to local residents. “I hope that needy people living here feel the warm love from S-Oil officers and employees for them and they can spend a happy New Year’s Day, feeling less lonely.”
The refiner has provided diverse volunteer services for the underprivileged. On Jan. 23, S-Oil donated 1,972 bags of rice worth 100 mil. won to Ulsan City, where its refinery is located, to help needy people in the region.
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