Rebranded Z outlets showed a 9 per cent increase in store sales, compared with a decline in those outlets still operating under a format unchanged since Shell's ownership. Photo / Dean Purcell
Z Energy, the petrol station chain, plans to raise up to $900 million in an initial public offering next month, allowing owners Infratil and the New Zealand Superannuation Fund to crystallise some of their profits on the three-year investment.
The chain's indicative price range is between $3.25 and $3.75 a
share, giving an implied market capitalisation of between $1.3 billion and $1.5 billion, and making it the 15th or 16th biggest company on the stock exchange.
Wellington-based Z won't retain any of the funds raised in the sale. It will offer between 113 million and 130 million of new shares worth some $422.4 million to repay funds owed to shareholders and pay for their shares of NZ Refining, according to its prospectus filed with the Companies Office today.
Infratil and the NZ Super Fund, via their holding company, will also sell between 40 per cent and 50 per cent of their existing shares in the chain, pulling out between $228 million and $478 million.
They paid just under $700 million in 2010 when they acquired the Shell service stations as part of a larger acquisition of the energy group's downstream New Zealand assets.
