Trafigura's Puma Said in Talks to Buy Stake in Pakistan Retailer

(Bloomberg) -- Puma Energy BV is considering a plan to invest in Pakistan fuel retailer Admore Gas Pvt. to tap growing demand in the $283 billion economy, a person with knowledge of the matter said.

Puma, whose largest shareholder is commodities trader Trafigura Group, is seeking to acquire a stake in the fuel retailer that wants to increase fuel storage across country, according to the person, who asked not to be identified because the discussions are private. Puma Chief Executive Officer  Pierre Eladari couldn’t be immediately reached for a comment. Admore Chief Executive Officer Nadeem Jafarey’s office in an email said “we will definitely contact you once we are ready to discuss this in detail,” declining to comment further.

Rising consumption, low interest rates and oil prices, along with a growing population is helping boost Pakistan’s economic growth rate above 5 percent, the fastest in a decade. Pakistan’s gasoline sales have more than tripled to more than 6 million tons in fiscal year ended June since 2010, according to Karachi-based brokerage Spectrum Securities Pvt.

The nation imports most of its refined fuel and spent $11 billion, or a fifth of the total import bill in the past fiscal year, on petroleum products. It’s also among growing markets for liquefied natural gas, along with Egypt and Jordan.

Puma, should the deal go through, will follow Vitol SA, the world’s biggest independent oil trader, which acquired a stake in Pakistan’s Hascol Petroleum Ltd. in 2015 and supplies most of its fuel. Vitol exercised an option to increase its stake in Hascol by a further 10 percent to 25 percent last month.

Admore has 471 retail fuel stations and increased sales by more than four times to 174,000 tons last year.

To contact the reporters on this story: Faseeh Mangi in Karachi at fmangi@bloomberg.net; Andy Hoffman in Geneva at ahoffman31@bloomberg.net. To contact the editors responsible for this story: Arijit Ghosh at aghosh@bloomberg.net Chris Kay.



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