Having bought up 125 independent Matilda petrol stations, Puma stalks fuel giants

Sophie Foster
January 23, 2013
The Courier-Mail

AUSTRALIA’S newest independent entrant to the fuel market is promising better deals at the bowser amid aggressive plans to wrestle market share off giants Coles and Woolworths.

Swiss-based Puma Energy – owned by global commodity trading firm Trafigura – sealed a deal to buy Neumann Petroleum, owner of the Matilda and Neumann-branded service stations.

The deal includes the Gold Coast-based Neumann family’s chain of 125 service stations stretching from Gladstone to the Victorian border and a crucial $18 million bulk seaboard fuel terminal at Brisbane’s Eagle Farm.

Puma’s Australian general manager Ray Taylor promised the deal would “bring more robust competition to the country’s petroleum market”.

Neumann and Matilda executive general manager Charles Wright said the immediate plan was to “get decent buy prices” especially in north Queensland.

ONE of Queensland’s wealthiest families, the Gold Coast-based Neumanns, has sealed a multimillion-dollar deal to sell off its fuel distribution division.

“What this does is give us an opportunity to have a much larger organisation behind us with similar growth aspirations to become a leading independent in Australia and offer better value for money in the fuel industry,” he said.

Analysts yesterday welcomed the addition of more competition in the fuel market, but warned that cheaper fuel was not necessarily a certainty.

Kevin Hughes, of HEH Australian Petroleum Consultancy, said he was not totally sold on the idea that the Puma deal meant cheaper fuel for Neumann.

“Everyone really works off pretty much the same cost base in terms of international petrol pricing,” Mr Hughes said.

But he expected the Federal Government would welcome the addition of a new independent in the marketplace.

Puma officials confirmed aggressive expansion plans for Australia, including growth of the Matilda and Neumann service station network nationwide as well as a new $65 million petroleum import facility in Mackay.

Puma Energy global chief Pierre Eladari said significant funds would be committed towards the Australian effort.

“Puma Energy has grown rapidly in recent years through organic growth and by buying downstream assets from ExxonMobil, BP and Chevron,” he said.

” Each time we have retained local staff and grown the businesses.

The move, subject to regulatory approvals and procedural consents, will be Trafigura’s first real foothold in Australia.

Mr Hughes said the group once provided the import facility for Woolworths, but lost their terminal storage in Sydney.

“It went over to Shell so they were basically forced from the market because they had no terminal storage facility.”