Colony Capital to buy Libya's Tamoil for USD 5.4 bln

06-07-2007

US investment firm Colony said it would buy Libyan government-owned Tamoil, one of Europe's largest international oil refining and distribution companies, for about 5.4 billion dollars.

The Libyan government will retain a 35 percent interest in the ongoing company, valued in the deal at four billion euros, Colony Capital said in a statement late Tuesday after the contract was signed.

The deal for the Tamoil brand also includes the holding company Oilinvest Group headquartered in the Netherlands.

Tamoil owns and operates more than 3,000 service stations in Europe, is a market leader in Italy and has oil refineries in Italy, Switzerland, Spain and Germany, Colony said.

Its distribution network also extends into Africa, where it has businesses in Egypt, Burkina Faso, Chad, Mali, Niger and Eritrea.

Libya is the second-largest oil producer in Africa, after Nigeria, with an output of 1.7 million barrels a day and has the continent's biggest oil reserves.

Colony Capital is a private, international investment firm focusing primarily on real estate-related assets, securities and operating companies.

The Los Angeles-based firm has invested approximately 28 billion dollars in over 8,400 assets worlwide.

In March, Colony, teamed with Groupe Arnault, a holding company owned by French tycoon Bernard Arnault, bought a major stake in the global retail giant Carrefour. It is also a leading shareholder in Accor, the French hotel group.

The lifting of US economic sanctions on Libya in May 2006, after Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi renounced all attempts to develop a non-conventional arsenal in 2003, has opened a new era of diplomatic relations and spawned a series of US investments.

In April, the Libyan state-owned National Oil Corporation announced a proposed partnership with US chemicals group Dow Chemical.