Is Speedway for Sale Again?

FINDLAY, Ohio — Speedway LLC could be changing hands as its parent company is reportedly in talks again to sell the roughly 4,000-store chain.

According to The Wall Street Journal, Marathon Petroleum Corp. (MPC) is exploring a sale with Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. as a possible suitor. Canada-based Couche-Tard is the parent company of Circle K.

The report did not attach a price tag to any possible transaction; however, in the fall MPC indicated Speedway could be worth between $15 billion and $18 billion.

If reports are true, this would be the second time this year MPC entertained offers for its Enon-based retail network. In February, Seven & i Holdings Co. Ltd., parent company to 7-Eleven Inc., and TDR Capital, the private equity firm behind U.K.-based EG Group, emerged as potential buyers, as Convenience Store News previously reported.

EG Group has been very active in the U.S. convenience channel since acquiring The Kroger Co.'s c-store portfolio in April 2018. It most recently acquired Westborough, Mass.-based Cumberland Farms in late 2019.

Subsequent reports put 7-Eleven's parent company in exclusive talks to buy Speedway for approximately $22 billion; however, those talks came to an end in early March.

For its part, MPC said last week that it is moving toward its original plan to spin off Speedway, a decision it announced in October. The completion date, though, has been pushed back from the end of 2020 to early 2021.