Fuel & Retail Convenience Focus

Background

Tracing its roots back to 1936, Wheels was a third-generation family-owned company that operated 27 premium fuel and retail convenience store locations throughout Fairfield and New Haven counties in Connecticut and operated a wholesale distributor of branded petroleum products serving other gasoline retailers in Connecticut, New York and New Jersey.

Objective

To customize, execute, and complete a confidential sale process that would allow Wheels’ shareholders to realize maximum after-tax value upon the sale of the Company’s assets.

CMG’s Solution

CMG provided merger and acquisition advisory services to Wheels, which included valuation advisory, marketing of the business through a confidential, structured sale process, and negotiation of the transaction.

Multiple competitive offers were received, and Global Partners was ultimately selected as the acquirer.  Global, a $11 billion revenue New York Stock Exchange-listed fuel marketing company, is one of the Northeast US’s largest independent owners, suppliers and operators of gasoline stations and convenience stores, tallying more than 1,600 total locations.

CMG assisted Wheels in the negotiation of the purchase agreement, coordinated due diligence, advised throughout a complex Federal Trade Commission inquiry regarding the Hart-Scott-Rodino Act, and managed the transaction’s closing process.

Matthew Susman and David Morosan of Cohen & Wolf, P.C. served as the Company’s primary legal advisors and Berkeley Research Group, a specialist in the Fuel and Retail Convenience industry, provided quality of earnings support.