Dublin-based business services firm DCC has reached conditional agreement with BP to acquire BP Gas Nederland, the company's liquefied petroleum gas (LPG) distribution business in the Netherlands, together with the trade and assets of BP's smaller LPG distribution business in north Belgium, which are together referred to as Benegas.

The €24.5m acquisition is conditional on approval from the Netherlands Competition Authority and it is anticipated that the transaction will complete in late 2012.

The cash consideration is on a cash free/debt free basis. The adjusted gross tangible operating assets of Benegas were approximately €15.4m at the 2011 year-end, while the adjusted net tangible operating assets were approximately €6.7m. During 2011, Benegas generated an adjusted operating profit of €4.0m.

Based in the central Netherlands, Benegas is a supplier of LPG in the Netherlands. Benegas supplies around 55,000 tonnes per annum of bulk, cylinder and aerosol LPG to a broad range of industrial, commercial and domestic customers. It has 44 staff and outsources its distribution and its cylinder filling to third parties.

Tommy Breen, Chief Executive of DCC, said today: "DCC has committed total expenditure of approximately €100m in recent weeks to the expansion of our LPG business through the acquisitions of BP's LPG business in Britain, the Statoil Fuel & Retail LPG business in Scandinavia and now Benegas. These acquisitions significantly increase the scale and geographic scope of DCC's LPG business in Europe."

The share price rose 1.79% to €22.14 by 12:10.

NR

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