Shell’s Vivo prepares for a dual listing

The owner of Shell service stations across Africa, Vivo Energy, has plumped up for a secondary inward listing on the JSE when it goes public on the London Stock Exchange in May.

Vivo was set up in 2011 as part of the carve-out of Shell’s African downstream business and its majority shareholders — Dutch energy group Vitol, African-focused private equity firm Helios Investment Partners and Shell itself — are now cashing out.

Chairman-elect John Daly said the listing would provide “an excellent platform for the next stage of the company’s development”. Its directors want to improve the group’s access to new capital markets, bolster growth and attract key talent.

By 2017, Vivo had an overall market share of 23% across North, West, East and Southern Africa and recently agreed to a share deal with Engen, which will add nine new retail countries and more than 300 service stations to its 1,800-strong portfolio. A prelisting statement said Vivo opened a new service station and shop or food outlet every three days between 2015 and 2017.

Its prospectus will be published “in due course” but, for now, the company has given a three-year snapshot of its earnings, which culminated in fullyear earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (ebitda) of $326m in the year to end-December 2017.

Net debt stood at $366.5m, with a cash conversion margin of 88%. The retail segment accounted for 65.2% of the group’s revenues and 60.4% of adjusted ebitda in the year ended December 2017.