EMEA News
Undisclosed Buyer Makes Offer on Royal Vopak's Entire UK Assets
Royal Vopak on Monday announced that an undisclosed bidder has made an offer on its entire United Kingdom assets.
The offer is reported to be non-binding, and Vopak did not disclose any details apart from the fact that "exploratory meetings are taking place," according to a press release.
Vopak currently operates 74 terminals in 27 countries and is developing 5.8 million cubic metres of space to add to its total of 32.7 million cbm by 2019.
Terminals facilitating global gas market growth is one of four main business focuses for Vopak; the other three are import distribution terminals in major markets with structural deficits; supporting intercontinental product flow; and industrial and chemical terminals in the Americas, the Middle East, and Asia.
Although Vopak markets itself as the world's leading independent tank storage provider for the oil and chemical industry, the company has faced challenges of late.
Last year, Estonian terminal operator Vopak E.O.S. (of which Royal Vopak is a 50 percent owner) downsized its operations as a result of a difficult market, and this came on the heels of Vopak reporting "a continued challenging market situation for specific European product-market combinations in Rotterdam (Netherlands) and Estonia" in its financial results of Q3 2013.
