Parkland Corp.’s future will be decided Tuesday at its annual meeting when shareholders vote on whether or not to accept Sunoco’s $9.1 billion bid for the company.
If approved, the combined company will have an enterprise value of about $25.5 billion and become the largest independent fuel distributor in the Americas, Parkland said last month. The deal would also put an end to Parkland’s chaotic battle with shareholder Simpson Oil, which has demanded change atop the company for years. Simpson, Parkland’s largest shareholder, launched a takeover attempt of the retailer’s board in mid-April in a bid to restructure the business.
If the sale is approved, it remains unclear how it would impact Parkland’s convenience retail network, which as of March included 645 convenience retail sites in the U.S., about 200 of which Parkland directly operates. The retailer also has over 2,300 sites in Canada and operates nearly 800 of them.
Tuesday’s meeting will end in one of two outcomes: Parkland’s thousands of c-stores across North America will join Sunoco’s network, or Simpson Oil will receive an open runway to take over the Canadian company’s board.
Here’s a recap of what led to this moment.