Dive Brief:

• Parkland Corp.’s shareholders “resoundingly approved” the company’s $9.1 billion sale to oil and energy firm Sunoco on Tuesday, a spokesperson from Sunoco said in a statement to C-Store Dive.
• Over 93% of Parkland’s shareholders voted in favor of the sale, Sunoco’s spokesperson said. Shareholders voted at Parkland’s annual meeting, which was rescheduled from early May to June 24 when the deal was announced last month.
• This marks the end of a tumultuous past few years for Parkland, which has endured long-term underperformance on both the fuel and c-store fronts since early 2023, culminating in a board takeover bid from its largest shareholder and its CEO announcing his resignation earlier this year.

Dive Insight:

The boards of directors from both companies unanimously approved the deal when it was announced the first week of May, with former Parkland CEO Bob Espey calling it a “significant milestone” at the time. 

Now that the deal has been approved by shareholders, Sunoco will form a new publicly traded company named SUNCorp, LLC, and will retain headquarters in Parkland’s home base of Calgary, Alberta. The combined company will have an enterprise value of about $25.5 billion and become the largest independent fuel distributor in the Americas. 

The combined entity will also have nearly 300 company-operated convenience stores in the U.S., as well as thousands more across the rest of North America, mainly in Canada. It’s still unclear what Sunoco intends to do with its newly acquired c-stores, especially since Sunoco has publicly touted Parkland’s fuel supply assets as the driving force behind the bid.

The deal was a long time coming for Sunoco, which tried to acquire Parkland two previous times in 2023. Parkland rejected those offers, but reopened negotiations after commencing its strategic review this past March. Sunoco’s final $9.1 billion offer was for $44 per share, which represented a 25% premium from Parkland’s shares at the time.

Sunoco has shared few details on who will run SUNCorp., although it’s expected to terminate each of Parkland’s executive officers who remain with the company after closing. The removal of Parkland’s leaders will also include its board of directors, as only one of its current members — whom Sunoco has not yet named — is expected to join SUNCorp’s newly formed board for 12 months.