Applegreen in talks with up to three parties on US deals

Applegreen, the petrol forecourt retailer, is in talks with up to three parties about opportunities to expand its fledgling presence in the US market, according to the company's chief executive.

Speaking to The Irish Times after the company's annual general meeting (agm) in Dublin on Monday, Bob Etchingham said the company's focus was on securing leasehold premises in the US, which would minimise capital investment as it builds out its business there.

He declined to identify the “two to three” parties the company was in talks with on the other side of the Atlantic.

Applegreen, which sold €92 million of shares in an initial public offering two years ago, had 155 sites in Ireland, 77 in the UK and 11 in the US at the end of last year.

Poor car sales hide strength of recovery in retail

---

Growth in retail sales slows amid fall-off in new car sales

---

Alibaba takes 18% stake in China’s Lianhua Supermarket

---

Applegreen to pay dividends amid ‘positive’ start to 2017

---

In a trading update issued before the agm, the company said it has added four new petrol filling stations, one new service area and five dealer locations in the Republic this year, and three new filling stations and a motorway service area in the UK, a market it entered in 2008.

It also opened two new filling stations in the New England area of the US, having started off in that market in 2014 on Long Island. The new US openings follow on from a deal signed last year to lease nine sites in New England from CrossAmerica Partners, a New York-listed fuel distributor. It also set up a franchise agreement with convenience store operator 7-Eleven in 2016 in the US.

Shareholders

While Mr Etchingham told The Irish Times in March that the company may turn to shareholders in the coming years to finance an expansion deal in the US or UK, he said on Monday that none of the plans it was currently looking at in either market would require an equity raise this year.

In the UK the company has applied for planning permission to develop four motorway service areas (MSAs) and is also seeking to develop a number of trunk road service areas, which are halfway between filling stations and MSAs.

While Mr Etchingham said that the health of UK consumers was weaker than was currently the case in Ireland, they were generally holding up ahead of Brexit talks getting under way.

Meanwhile, Applegreen expects to name a new chief financial officer by the end of next month to replace Paul Lynch, who joined the company in July 2014 and signalled earlier this year that he was leaving.

Growth mode

Applegreen is set to pay a maiden dividend of 1.25c per share next month, which will cost the company just €1 million. The company has warned investors not to expect large payouts for the foreseeable future as it remained in growth mode, which would require investment.

The trading statement concluded that the board, led by Daniel Kitchen, was "very satisfied with the progress and performance of the business for the first four months of the year", and that it was confident it would meet its growth targets for 2017.

The company has not given the market detailed profit guidance for the full year.