By Anne-Sylvaine Chassany and Fred Pals
Feb. 23 (Bloomberg) — Royal Dutch Shell Plc, which is seeking to focus on exploration and production, may sell its liquefied petroleum gas distribution unit, four people with knowledge of the plan said.
Shell hired Credit Suisse Group AG to manage a sale of the division, which is valued at more than 800 million euros ($1.1 billion), said three of the people, who declined to be identified because the talks are private. The company sent information last week to potential bidders including private equity firms, they said. Rainer Winzenried, a spokesman for The Hague-based Shell, declined to comment.
Shell aims to save $1 billion this year and will cut 1,000 more jobs in an effort to weather the economic slowdown, which has led to high inventories of fuels like gasoline and diesel in the U.S. and Europe. Shell processed 9 percent less crude in 2009 and is in talks to sell its U.K. Stanlow refinery and two German plants to Indias Essar Oil Ltd.
Shell in 2004 offered its LPG distribution and marketing business up for sale and sold some LPG units, including those in Portugal, Brazil, Paraguay, Italy and parts of the Caribbean for around $350 million. Repsol YPF SA of Spain bought Shells Portuguese business in December 2004 and said it bid for the whole LPG unit. Shell in 2006 said it would keep parts of its LPG business that werent already been sold because it wasnt offered enough for them.
–Editors: Stephen Cunningham, Will Kennedy.
To contact the reporters on this story: Anne-Sylvaine Chassany in Paris at +33-1-5365-5078 or [email protected] Fred Pals in Amsterdam at 31-20-589-8563 or [email protected]
To contact the editor responsible for this story: Edward Evans at +44-20-7073-3190 or [email protected]
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