News

Lariat Partners-backed Offen Petroleum, a fuel distributor, agreed to buy the business assets of fuel distribution company Overland Petroleum. The combination will create one of the largest fuel distributors in the greater Rocky Mountain region. The deal is expected to close in the third quarter.

Press Release

Offen Petroleum, a leading independent fuel distributor, announced today that it has signed a binding agreement to acquire the business assets of Overland Petroleum, a respected fuel distributor. Offen Petroleum is a portfolio company of Lariat Partners (“Lariat”), a Denver-based private equity firm. Offen is a provider of motor fuel, lubricants, and petroleum logistics services in Colorado and 12 surrounding states. The combination creates one of the largest fuel distributors in the Greater Rocky Mountain region and will operate as Offen Petroleum.

The transaction is expected to be completed in the third quarter upon completion of regulatory and closing conditions.

Based in St. George, Utah and owned and operated by the Snow and Ipson families, Overland Petroleum is an independent fuel distributor that operates in the Greater Rocky Mountain Region. In recent years, Overland has focused its growth by delivering branded fuel to independent convenience retailers. Overland has focused on the Sinclair brand but also offers Conoco, Phillips 66, and the brands licensed by Andeavor. In addition to these branded relationships, like Offen, Overland distributes wholesale gasoline and diesel fuel to unbranded fuel retailers and commercial customers across the Rocky Mountains and Southwest regions of the United States. Overland controls its own fleet of tankers and currently operates in Utah, Arizona, Nevada, Idaho, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, and New Mexico.

“As leaders in our core markets, the combination creates a stronger company, better able to optimize the utilization of our fleet assets and expand upon our supplier relationships as we continue to efficiently serve our valued customers,” said Bill Gallagher, CEO of Offen Petroleum. “I am pleased that Darin Snow and Danny Ipson will be joining our expanded leadership team. Further, with a team of 100+ experienced drivers combined with our longstanding supply relationships, modern fleet, scalable processes and systems, and best-in-class team, we will continue to safely deliver superior levels of customer service and a full slate of motor fuel product offering.”

Jay Coughlon, Managing Partner at Lariat Partners, said, “This transformative acquisition nearly doubles the size of Offen and creates a leader in the greater Rocky Mountain region. Since partnering with Bill, Offen has outperformed our expectations with strong organic growth and continued investment in people and systems while maintaining industry leading safety performance. The addition of Overland’s strong management team deepens our already strong executive bench and enhances our ability to continue growing. We continue to pursue acquisition opportunities that will strengthen our existing operations as well as penetrate new geographic markets.”

About Offen Petroleum

Offen traces its roots to the 1930s and was acquired by Bill Gallagher and Gwen Stukey in 1997. With Overland, the company will deliver nearly 1 billion gallons of motor fuel annually and will serve as both a branded and unbranded wholesale motor fuel distributor in 12 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

Denver-based Lariat Partners is a 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. The firm targets companies across a number of industries, including Specialty Distribution, Energy & Environmental Services, Food & Agribusiness, Consumer Products and Maritime Services. For more information, visit www.lariatpartners.net