{"id":606422,"date":"2026-07-27T12:21:12","date_gmt":"2026-07-27T12:21:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/606422\/"},"modified":"2026-07-27T12:21:12","modified_gmt":"2026-07-27T12:21:12","slug":"dcc-board-backs-compelling-takeover-bid-of-up-to-5-73-billion-the-irish-times","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/606422\/","title":{"rendered":"DCC board backs \u2018compelling\u2019 takeover bid of up to \u00a35.73 billion \u2013 The Irish Times"},"content":{"rendered":"

DCC Energy<\/a> chief executive Donal Murphy said he expects the vast majority of shareholders to support the sale of the group to two US private equity firms for up to \u00a35.73 billion (\u20ac6.71 billion), even as the board appears to be on a collision course with some top investors resisting a deal they see as undervaluing the company.<\/p>\n

The Dublin-based group confirmed on Monday it had agreed to sell itself to KKR and Energy Capital in a transaction that includes a \u00a365.25-a-share upfront payment and as \u00a31.25 extra per share if they achieve at least $800 million (\u20ac697.6 million) from a sale of the tech division, known as Nexora. <\/p>\n

The bid consortium had included the payment of DCC\u2019s final \u20ac1.47-a-share dividend on its earnings for last year in each of the multiple offers it tabled since late April. <\/p>\n

The dividend was included in the statement on the agreed deal on Monday, even though it had actually been paid out last week. Murphy said that this was to allow the market to compare each offer from the time DCC rejected an initial \u20ac58-a-share bid. <\/p>\n

The proposal values the upfront cash offer at a 21.3 per cent premium to DCC\u2019s closing share price in London \u2013 where it is listed \u2013 on April 28th, before it emerged that KKR and Energy Capital were circling the group. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe the majority of shareholders will vote in favour of this,\u201d Murphy told The Irish Times, adding that the board had \u201cengaged very robustly\u201d with the suitors over the past three months. <\/p>\n

DCC is now one of three Irish public companies subject to takeover proposals. PTSB and Irish Continental Group (ICG) are also under offer. <\/p>\n

Murphy, who has overseen a strategy to abandon DCC\u2019s conglomerate roots to focus on energy, said that while the board \u201cabsolutely believes\u201d that the remaining energy division is on course to double its operating profit to \u00a3830 million between 2022 and 2030, the target is \u201cnot without risk\u201d when weighted against an uncertain geopolitical and macroeconomic backdrop as well as the need for the group to invest \u00a31 billion-\u00a31.2 billion. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen the board looks at it and evaluates it in totality, we believe that this is very compelling from a shareholder perspective, and that\u2019s why we recommended it,\u201d Murphy said. <\/p>\n

Five big shareholders \u2013 Fidelity International, DCC\u2019s founder Jim Flavin<\/a>, Aviva Investors, Marathon Asset Management and Ninety One \u2013 have signalled in recent times that they would not support an offer around the level tabled by the consortium. They own more than 15 per cent of the stock between them. <\/p>\n

DCC, whose businesses once spanned Robert Roberts tea and coffee to waste management, decided in late 2024 to abandon the remaining elements of its conglomerate roots.<\/p>\n

DCC sold its healthcare unit a year ago. It also offloaded part of its technology business, with the remainder of that division, known as Nexora, currently on the market and expected to be sold by the end of this year. <\/p>\n

Murphy said that despite extensive engagement with the market and the strategic progress DCC has made in recent years, the FTSE 100 company had not enjoyed an expected valuation bump in the public market. <\/p>\n

DCC, whose energy businesses span the operation of 1,173 petrol stations in Europe to distributing liquid gas on both sides of the Atlantic, and installing and maintaining solar PV and heat pump systems, had tweaked the narrative in efforts to secure a re-rating. <\/p>\n

While it once put greater emphasis on how it fit into the environment, social and governance (ESG) agenda as a play on the energy transition, it had put more weight recently on security and affordability of fuel supply, according to analysts. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe evidence has been that this transition is way, way, way slower than anyone anticipated. When we set out in 2022 with our strategy, we believed and the world believed that energy transition was going to happen very quickly. Energy transition is happening very slowly.\u201d<\/p>\n

Murphy said that DCC has had a challenge attracting new investors in recent times as they have preferred to wait for evidence of how the energy strategy will evolve. <\/p>\n

DCC shares were up 1.2 per cent at \u00a363.60 in late morning trading. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DCC Energy chief executive Donal Murphy said he expects the vast majority of shareholders to support the sale…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":606423,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[73],"tags":[90683,79,39991,226985,254782,18,19,17,47457,227907,156508,37657],"class_list":["post-606422","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-bawag","tag-business","tag-dcc","tag-donal-murphy","tag-eamonn-rothwell","tag-eire","tag-ie","tag-ireland","tag-irish-continental","tag-irish-takeover-panel","tag-kkr","tag-ptsb"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@ie\/116991917461933169","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606422","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=606422"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/606422\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/606423"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=606422"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=606422"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=606422"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}