Global Partners' recent decision to exclude a petroleum terminal in South Portland, Maine, from its purchase agreement to buy five terminals from Gulf Oil should help the deal obtain regulatory approval, according to a news release from the Federal Trade Commission on Tuesday.
Global's purchase of the Maine terminal raised antitrust concerns with the FTC and the Office of the Maine Attorney General, the FTC said.
"The FTC is pleased that Global Partners has abandoned its anti-competitive acquisition of Gulf Oil's terminal in South Portland, Maine," Henry Liu, FTC Bureau of Competition director, said in the statement. "This acquisition threatened to limit competition and increase prices, affecting consumers who use heating oil and diesel fuel in and around the Portland area."
In February, Global announced it would amend the purchase agreement to exclude the terminal from the transaction and reduce the purchase price to $212.3 million from $273 million.
Global entered the initial agreement to buy five refined products terminals in Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts and New Jersey in December 2022.
"We continue to work through the regulatory process for this transaction," Chief Executive Officer Eric Slifka told analysts during the company's fourth-quarter earnings call Feb. 28.
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--Reporting by Donna Harris, dharris@opisnet.com; Editing by Michael Kelly, mkelly@opisnet.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
04-09-24 1607ET
