Situation
Located in Springfield, Massachusetts, Leonard E. Belcher, Inc. (“L.E. Belcher” or the “Company”) began operations in the late 1920s and was purchased by Charles Hough in the early 1950s and subsequently sold to his son, Edward Hough, in the 1990s.

The Hough family grew L.E. Belcher into a leading fuel distributor with two distillate terminals, a distillate storage facility, commercial and wholesale fuels businesses, and retail operations.  The Company was a multi-branded, multi-state fuel distributor that stretched from Western Massachusetts to as far south as New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Matrix was retained to perform a valuation of the business segments of the Company and advise on a partial or total sale of the Company.  Ultimately, Mr. Hough decided to sell all of the Company’s petroleum assets to diversify his family’s wealth and to make a complete exit from the industry.

Objective
To customize, execute and complete a confidential sales process that would allow L.E. Belcher’s shareholders to realize maximum after-tax value for a mixed portfolio of assets that would likely yield a lower overall value if sold to a single buyer.

Solution
Matrix provided merger and acquisition advisory services to L.E. Belcher, which included a valuation of the Company’s business segments, marketing of the Company’s assets through a customized, confidential, structured sale process that allowed potential buyers to offer on components of the Company, and the negotiation of two separate transactions.

Multiple offers were received and after further negotiations with various potential buyers, Petroleum Marketing Group (“PMG”) was selected as the purchaser of the retail and wholesale motor fuels assets and Sprague Resources LP (“Sprague”) (NYSE: SRLP) was selected as the purchaser of the Company’s terminal and commercial fuels businesses.

Matrix assisted in the negotiation of both purchase agreements, simultaneous due diligence and consecutive closings for two buyers within a span of less than two months.

The transaction closed in February (Sprague) and April (PMG) of 2017.