Vopak today announced it will sell a 30% non-controlling interest in Vopak Terminal Durban to Reatile Chemicals, which is part of the Reatile Group, a South African company with a focus on mining services, energy, and petrochemicals.
Rationale for the deal:
Since 2009 Vopak and Reatile are jointlydeveloping growth opportunities in South Africa. With Reatile, Vopak Terminal Durban gains a shareholder contributing extensive local business experience required to enable further growth.
Vopak Terminal Durban:
Vopak owns 100% of this 130,000 cbm terminal, which stores oil, chemicals, and vegoils. The sale of a 30% minority stake has no impact on gross network capacity, and it lowers net network capacity by 39,000 cbm or 0.2%.
Our view:
The deal has a negligible impact on our estimates. Hopefully, teaming up with Reatile will lead to additional demand for storage services in South Africa, which would benefit the existing capacity, and which could eventually lead to capacity expansion.