News

Lariat Partners has sold Offen Petroleum to Court Square Capital Partners. No financial terms were disclosed. Stephens Inc was financial adviser to Offen Petroleum on the deal while Barclays did likewise for Court Square. Based in Commerce City, Colorado, Offen is a provider of petroleum logistics services and is a specialty distributor of motor fuel and lubricants.

PRESS RELEASE

DENVER, June 27, 2019 – Lariat Partners (“Lariat”), a Denver-based private equity firm, announced today the sale of its ownership interest in Offen Petroleum (“Offen”), one of the largest fuel distributors in the Western U.S., to Court Square Capital Partners.

Headquartered in Commerce City, Colorado, Offen is a specialty distributor of motor fuel and lubricants and provides petroleum logistics services to customers across Colorado and 13 surrounding states. Lariat invested in Offen in late 2017 and Offen has executed a tremendous growth strategy since then, doubling the number of gallons distributed and significantly growing its earnings. With the completion of two transformative add-on acquisitions, Overland Petroleum, a respected Utah based fuel distributor, and Allied Energy, a growing Arizona based fuel distributor, Offen expanded its presence in the Rocky Mountain West, Arizona, and Nevada.

Bill Gallagher, founder and Chief Executive Officer of Offen Petroleum, said, “Our partnership with Lariat was outstanding and extremely beneficial for our company. Together, we have continued to strengthen Offen in order to accelerate our organic growth while simultaneously executing strategic acquisitions across our core geographies. We are evaluating a robust pipeline of strategic add-on opportunities and our larger scale has further opened the doors to new organic growth prospects. I appreciated my relationship with Lariat and I look forward to working with the Court Square team as we build upon Offen’s already strong performance.”

Jay Coughlon, a Managing Partner and co-founder of Lariat Partners and who lead the Offen transaction, said, “When we invested in Offen, we not only invested in the company but in Bill and his entire management team. It was a strong company with long-standing customer relationships and we knew it had tremendous future potential. Working together we were able to unleash that potential and with additional investment it will continue to expand its geographic reach and serve its customers extremely well.”

Stephens Inc. served as the exclusive financial advisor to Offen Petroleum. The transaction was led by Stephens’ Investment Banking Specialty Distribution & Services team. Barclays served as financial advisor to Court Square on the transaction and KeyBanc Capital Markets served as lead arranger on the financing.

About Offen Petroleum
Offen traces its roots to the 1930s and was acquired by Bill Gallagher and Gwen Stukey in 1997. The company distributes over 1 billion gallons of motor fuel annually and serves as both a branded and unbranded wholesale motor fuel distributor in 14 Rocky Mountain West states. In addition to motor fuels, Offen also sells lubricant products and solutions for the commercial, industrial, and passenger car segments, as well as diesel exhaust fluids used in emission controls. More information on Offen can be found at www.offenpetro.com.

About Lariat Partners
Lariat Partners is a Denver-based private equity firm focused on redefining the private equity experience in the lower-middle market. With its People First, Strategy Second relationship philosophy and its CORE investment strategy targeting Consolidations, Consumables and Recurring Revenue businesses, Lariat offers a differentiated approach to partnering with entrepreneurs and growing their middle market businesses. For more information, visit www.lariatpartners.net.

About Stephens Inc.
Stephens Inc. is a full service, independent financial services firm headquartered in Little Rock, Arkansas. Since its inceptions in 1933, privately held Stephens Inc. has served a broad client base which includes corporations, state and local governments, financial institutions, institutional and individual investors throughout the United States and overseas. For more information, visit www.stephens.com. Member NYSE, SIPC.