(Bloomberg) -- Gunvor Group Ltd. agreed to buy TotalEnergies SE’s 50% stake in Pakistan’s second-largest filling-station network, the latest move by a major commodity trader into fuel retail.
The Total Parco network, a 50-50 joint venture with Pak-Arab Refinery Ltd., has more than 800 gas stations and lubricant distribution units. Gunvor is among global commodity houses tapping bumper profits to buy up downstream assets in a bet on emerging-market demand and to lock in fuel-purchase contracts.
It’s Gunvor’s second major investment announced in a week, after the firm agreed to acquire half of a biofuels refinery in the Netherlands.
Establishing a large base of retail sites gives commodity houses an outlet for the products they trade and physical assets to bolster profit margins. It also provides valuable insight into fuel consumption trends, helping them build their trading operation.
Terms of the deal were not disclosed in company statements Tuesday. The stations will continue to use Total Parco branding for the next five years.
(Updates with branding commitment in final paragraph.)
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