May 25, 2015 [OPIS] - Dutch tank storage operator Vopak is close to inking a deal for the sale of its entire Swedish assets to an unnamed Canadian buyer with diverse storage and petroleum interests, OPIS learned from a source familiar with the negotiations.
The sale comprises about 1.26 million cbm of liquids storage caverns and tanks, the bulk of which located at Gothenburg (951,238 cm) on the west coast, serving a cluster of refineries run by Preem, St1 and Nynas.
Other sites are at Gavle (192,536 cbm) on the Gulf of Bothnia coast; at Malmo (66,757 cbm), near the southwestern tip of Sweden; and at Sodertalje (50,437 cbm), near Stockholm, according to company data.
The Swedish business has been weighing on Vopak’s group earnings for a while, owing to low occupancy rates.
With disposal proceeds expected to fall short of the assets’ carrying value, Vopak booked an impairment charge of 10.3 million euros ($11.4 million) for its Swedish operations last year, according to its latest annual review, which referred to initial third-party offers.
