Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. announced that TotalEnergies has accepted its offer to acquire certain European retail assets from TotalEnergies, as announced earlier this year. The retail assets included in the acquisition, at the end of calendar 2022, span 2,193 sites: 1,195 in Germany, 566 in Belgium, 387 in Netherlands and 45 in Luxembourg.

Following completion of the information and consultation process, TotalEnergies has accepted the offer and will now enter into definitive agreements to affect the transaction. This transaction remains subject to the approval of relevant European regulatory authorities, but closing continues on track to occur before the end of calendar year 2023.

The financial terms and conditions are such that Couche-Tard would acquire 100% of TotalEnergies retail assets in Germany and the Netherlands, as well as a 60% controlling interest in the Belgium and Luxembourg entities, for a purchase price of approximately $4.4 billion, to be paid in cash, subject to customary closing adjustments.

"We are excited to welcome the TotalEnergies employees and stores into the Couche-Tard family,” said Brian Hannasch, president and chief executive officer of Alimentation Couche-Tard, in a statement. “As we learned more about their business, it became clear that we share the same customer-centric approach, values and focus on an engaged workforce. We have deep respect for its operations, management and people as well as great confidence that by joining forces together, we will build a winning global retail operation in the region. We see this as a strong geographical fit with our existing European network, which will allow us to grow together in some of Europe's strongest economies and move forward in our vision to become the world's preferred destination for convenience and mobility."

Patrick Pouyanné, chairman and CEO of TotalEnergies, said in a statement, "In Europe, the transformation of mobility is changing the way customers use service stations. This deep trend means that new services and new activities need to be developed, notably in the stores. Service stations must expand from just selling fuel to become full-fledged service hubs. For this reason, TotalEnergies has decided to partner with Couche-Tard and tap into its recognized expertise in operating convenience stores in service stations. We are delighted that Couche-Tard will apply all of its know-how in these 2,200 service stations in Western Europe and join forces with us in Belgium and Luxembourg, where we are the market leader. I am certain that this win-win forward-looking move will be a great success."

In April, Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. announced that it reached an agreement to acquire 112 fuel and convenience retail sites to be carved out from MAPCO Express Inc. In February, Couche-Tard acquired 45 Big Red Stores in Arkansas.