FleetCor Acquires Pacific Pride for $ 50 Million
Rancho LPG To Pay EPA Fine

FLEETCOR ACQUIRES PACIFIC PRIDE FOR $50 MILLION

SOUTH PORTLAND, ME. — WEX Inc., based here, has sold its Pacific Pride subsidiary, based in Salem, OR., for approximately $50 million to FleetCor, the parent company of the CFN cardlock network.

Included in the acquisition was Pacific Pride's franchise network of over 330 independent fuel franchisees. Although founded in the West, the Pacific Pride network extends across the United States and Canada and processes over 32 million fleet card transactions annually. It is estimated to switch over one billion gallons each year.

Pacific Pride generates approximately 80% of its revenue from transaction fees.

FleetCor has not announced their plans for merging the two networks. It is anticipated there will be some challenges as CFN and Pacific Pride have been strong competitors in the cardlock industry, especially in the West. Here many of the competing cardlock locations are in close proximity and both CFN and Pacific Pride salespeople have focused on promoting their specific network benefits.

WEX had announced they planned to sell Pacific Pride because "it no longer fit into the company's business model." WEX officials say they are going to focus on looking for growth in the travel and health care sectors of the fleet fueling business.

The deal was closed on July 30, netting WEX a pre-tax gain of approximately $28 million. WEX had purchased privately held Pacific Pride for about $32 million cash in 2008.

RANCHO LPG TO PAY EPA FINE

SAN PEDRO, CA. — Rancho LPG Holdings, based here, has agreed to pay a $260,000 fine to the Environmental Protection Agency for having "insufficient safety information" relating to earthquake-related risks.

The EPA had been investigating the butane storage facility for the past four years. The fine comes from the EPA's finding that the facility had incomplete safety information to evaluate potential seismic stresses in case of an earthquake, had not analyzed "the potential loss of water supplies for firefighting" as part of their earthquake plan, and had not tested the backup equipment that could be used to contain accidental releases of butane and propane at the site.

In addition to paying the fine, Rancho LPG Holdings has addressed the EPA violations found at the site.

Company officials formally disputed the EPA claims and stated they were in compliance with all regulations at the facility. They noted that since acquiring the site in 2008, Rancho LPG has spent $7.2 million for safety improvements. In the past four years, they said "the facility has performed well in more than 45 inspections by local, state and federal regulatory agencies."

The Rancho LPG Holdings facility includes two steel liquid petroleum tanks that can store up to 25 million gallons of flammable substances.

Originally published in the September 2014 issue of O&A Marketing News.
Copyright 2014 by KAL Publications Inc.