EG Group sells 12% of Minit Mart stores for $48M

Dive Brief:

Convenience store retailer EG Group has sold 26 Minit Mart locations in the U.S. for $48 million, according to the company’s full-year earnings results posted Thursday.
EG Group did not specify a buyer of the Minit Mart assets. The move comes days after the retailer entered into a $1.5 billion sale-leaseback agreement with Realty Income Corporation under which the real estate investment trust will purchase up to 415 c-store properties in the U.S.
Moving forward, EG Group said it “will consider utilising” both real estate monetization and asset sales as it looks to reduce its debt, according to the report. As of January, the company had about $8.6 billion in debt falling due in 2025.

Dive Insight:

EG Group acquired Minit Mart’s 225-site network from TravelCenters of America in 2018 for $305 million just months after it purchased Kroger’s former c-store division. By selling off these 26 stores, EG is offloading nearly 12% of its overall Minit Mart assets.

EG Group said selling the 26 “non-core” Minit Mart locations has no impact on its earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization (EBITDA). This move, along with its recent 415-location real-estate disposal in the U.S., is part of EG’s “long term strategy” the company said in its report.

“As we previously stated, management is committed to further significant deleveraging and is actively exploring additional opportunities to put in place a sustainable capital structure for the Group to underpin our long-term strategy,” Zuber Issa, co-CEO of EG Group, said in the report.

Founded in 1967 in Lexington, Kentucky, Minit Mart eventually expanded to nine U.S. states. In 2015, TravelCenters of America purchased all Minit Mart locations, then EG acquired the network three years later.

“Looking ahead, we remain confident that EG is well-positioned to continue to outperform the wider market and execute on our strategic objectives,” Issa said.

EG Group did not respond by press time to an inquiry for more details on its sale of the 26 Minit Mart stores.