London - Royal Dutch Shell PLC will sell its French liquefied petroleum gas business for about 464 million euros ($519 million) to DCC Energy, adding to more than $2 billion of disposals this year following the collapse in oil prices.
The Butagaz unit will give DCC Energy a quarter of France’s LPG market and make it Europe’s third-largest distributor of the fuel, it said in a statement on Tuesday. Shell is exiting the LPG business globally and focusing its refining and fuel marketing operations on smaller areas, it said in a separate statement.
Shell Chief Executive Officer Ben Van Beurden is speeding up asset sales and spending curbs to cope with a slump in oil prices. The Anglo-Dutch company has sold oil fields in Nigeria, axed a $6.5 billion petrochemicals plant in Qatar and stalled a liquefied natural-gas project in Australia.
In January, Shell said that it would cut $15 billion of investments over the next three years and curtail exploration.
DCC Energy is part of Dublin, Ireland-based DCC PLC, which operates energy, technology and health care businesses.
DCC rose 9.6 percent to 4,811 pence by 8.47am in London. Shell’s B shares, the most widely traded, dropped 0.2 percent.
The deal is expected to be completed this year. Shell will continue its aviation fuel and lubricants businesses in France.
Bloomberg