The shareholders of UNITANK Holding GmbH & Co. KG (“UNITANK”) have reached an agreement with DIF Core Infrastructure Fund I (“DIF”) and SL Capital Infrastructure II SCSp (“ASI”) to sell 100% of the shares in UNITANK, with ASI and DIF each acquiring a 50% stake.
UNITANK is a market leading independent and neutral infrastructure and services provider storing liquid oil products, headquartered in Hamburg, Germany. The company owns and operates five terminals in Germany and one terminal in Belgium, all in key strategic locations. The terminals handle diesel, gasoline, jet fuel and heating oil and have a total storage capacity of c. 1.1 million cubic meters. Servicing both strategic stockholding agencies with product storage as well as commercial clients with product throughput provides UNITANK with a stable and resilient business model.
The acquisition provides DIF and ASI with a strong and differentiated platform in the German liquid bulk storage and throughput market. Its flexible business model, high-quality and state-of-the-art asset base, and operational excellence positions the company well for the future. The consortium will continue to back the company’s long-term and successful strategy for the business.
The transaction was completed in May 2019.
CASE Corporate Finance and ABN AMRO acted as exclusive financial advisors to the shareholders of UNITANK.
Jan Westedt – Owner
“Our family has run UNITANK over two generations with a strategy emphasising close and trusted partnerships with our clients and employees, which were key elements of our success story. We are glad that DIF and ASI together with the management team will continue to pursue a long-term investment strategy centered around our philosophy and corporate culture.”
Dominic Helmsley – Head of Economic Infrastructure at Aberdeen Standard Investments
“We consider UNITANK to be a highly successful provider of storage capacity for strategic stockholding agencies and a key strategic partner for oil majors. We value the Company’s historic growth and see significant future upside. Together with our partners DIF we look forward to working closely with UNITANK management in supporting the business and exploring further business opportunities.”
Willem Jansonius – Partner at DIF
“We firmly believe in the strategy as set by the current shareholder and management team. We are impressed with the commercial re-positioning of the business and its importance in providing essential services in its clients’ supply chains. We appreciate the well-invested asset base and the resulting high standards of operational excellence, which are essential to UNITANK’s current and future positioning.”
DIF is an independent infrastructure fund manager, with EUR 5.6bn of assets under management across seven closed-end infrastructure funds and several co-investment vehicles. DIF invests in greenfield and brownfield infrastructure assets located primarily in Europe, North America and Australasia.
Aberdeen Standard Investments has over EUR 4bn of assets under management across direct economic and concession infrastructure. The Economic infrastructure funds’ primary objective is to achieve long term, consistent returns by investing in brownfield core/core+ infrastructure assets in Europe.