RICHMOND, VA / BALTIMORE, MD – November 1, 2019 – Matrix Capital Markets Group, Inc. (“Matrix”), a leading, independent investment bank, announces that it has advised ITOCHU Corporation (TYO:8001) (“ITOCHU”) and its subsidiary IPC (USA), Inc. (“IPC”) on the sale of IPC’s U.S. wholesale petroleum distribution business to TACenergy, a division of The Arnold Companies (TAC).

IPC is a wholesale distributor of diesel, gasoline, and other petroleum products based out of Santa Ana, CA. On an annual basis, IPC markets and distributes more than one billion gallons of petroleum products to customers in approximately 30 states, with its largest concentration of business on the West Coast. TACenergy is a national leading independent wholesale fuels distributor of refined petroleum products headquartered in Dallas, TX.

IPC was founded in March 2004 initially as a joint venture between ITOCHU and Chemoil, but in 2011, ITOCHU bought Chemoil’s interest in the joint venture and IPC became a wholly owned subsidiary.

ITOCHU Corporation dates back to 1858 when the Company’s founder Chubei Itoh commenced linen trading operations. Today, ITOCHU is one of the leading Japanese conglomerates engaged in domestic trading, import/export, and overseas trading of various products such as textiles, machinery, metals, minerals, energy, chemicals, food, information and communications technology, realty, general products, insurance, logistics services, construction, and finance, as well as business investment in Japan and overseas.

Matrix provided merger and acquisition advisory services to ITOCHU and IPC, which included valuation advisory, marketing the business through a confidential, structured sale process, and negotiation of the sale. The transaction was managed by Thomas Kelso, President of Matrix; John Underwood, Managing Director; Andrew LoPresti, Vice President; and Nathan Wah, Analyst.

Ted Tanaka, CEO of IPC, commented, “I am very pleased and have enjoyed working with the Matrix team. Matrix has extensive knowledge and experience in the energy industry and structured an extremely well-run process. Their guidance helped us from start to finish, and they were always there when we needed advice and support.”

Mr. Underwood added, “We have had a long-term relationship with IPC dating back to 2011 and have enjoyed working with them over the years. We are honored to have been chosen by ITOCHU to implement the difficult decision of divesting the business of IPC and appreciated the opportunity to advise them on this transaction.”

Thomas Pilkerton III of DLA Piper LLP (US) served as legal counsel for ITOCHU and IPC.