Couche-Tard Acquires 29 Central Florida C-stores

LAVAL, Quebec -- Alimenation Couche-Tard Inc. acquired 29 convenience stores from Florida Oil Holdings LLC for an undisclosed sum.

The transaction is expected to close by the end of this month, Couche-Tard stated.

The company added that all sites, which offer motor fuel under the BP brand, will be operated by its Florida division under the Circle K name.

"This is a great opportunity for the Florida Division to strengthen our market share in the Orlando market," said David Morgan, vice president of operations for Couche-Tard's Florida division. "The assets are very high quality and are great locations. I am very confident the assets and team will make an immediate positive contribution to the corporation. This transaction would bring the company -operated store count to 406."

Couche-Tard also announced today it completed the closing of its public offering of 6.35 million Class B shares in Canada.

Concurrently, the parent of Circle K stores in the United States also announced it closed an overallotment offering of an additional 952,500 shares.

In all, Couche-Tard said it earned approximately $330.4 million from the sale of more than 7.3 shares after deducting the underwriters' fees and expenses.

According to Couche-Tard, the net proceeds from the shares sales will be used to pay down a portion of its long-term debt.

The share offering was only available to Canadian residents.

Class B shares often provide subordinate voting rights compared to their Class A counterparts.

Alimentation Couche-Tard operates 5,803 convenience stores in North America, of which 4,216 also offer motor fuel dispensing.

In addition, the company now operates approximately 2,300 c-stores in Europe following its Statoil Fuel & Retail ASA acquisition.