Motor Fuel Group owner lines up banks for £5bn auction

The owner of Motor Fuel Group (MFG), Britain’s biggest independent petrol forecourts operator, has picked the banks that will oversee a £5bn sale.
The private equity firm Clayton Dubilier & Rice (CD&R) is lining up Citi, Deutsche Bank, Goldman Sachs and Royal Bank of Canada to sell MFG.
The company, which trades from roughly 900 sites across the UK, has been striving to position itself at the heart of the drive to electrify Britain’s automotive industry.
It said recently that it would spend £50m this year on installing 350 rapid vehicle chargers across its estate.
The Motor Fuel Group (MFG) first electric vehicle (EV) only forecourt and valeting centre dedicated solely to ultra-rapid chargers in the North-West of England at its Stretford branch on the Chester Road, Manchester.
MFG has grown substantially since CD&R bought it in 2015 from Patron Capital Partners in a deal worth about £500m.
Three years later, it paid £1.2bn to add MRH, the market leader, creating a group operating under fuel brands such as BP, Esso, Shell and Texaco.
Profits are understood to have risen about tenfold since CD&R’s original acquisition of MFG.
The company has invested heavily in its convenience retailing proposition, featuring the likes of Costa Coffee, Greggs and Subway at many of its sites.

MFG’s increased focus on electrification could appeal to infrastructure investors who could seek to partner with each other to bid for the company.
A deal could also attract interest from oil companies attempting to harness the global energy transition.