On Sunday, 11 February 2024, the Vitol Group, a private energy and commodities enterprise, announced that it had reached an agreement with Sarroch-based Saras SpA to buy a 35% stake at €1.75 per share. This investment expands Vitol’s footprint in the profitable Mediterranean market.
Vitol broadening its Mediterranean horizons with a controlling stake in Saras
Saras’s Sardinia industrial facility is the largest single-site refinery in the Mediterranean. It produces approximately 300,000 barrels per day to feed supply chains in Italy and Europe. The site’s fully integrated power generation plant supplies more than 40% of Sardinia’s electricity.
Bloomberg indicated that Vitol increased its bottom lines as the COVID-19 pandemic and Ukraine invasion destabilised energy markets. For companies such as Vitol, it means more capital to spend on organisations with stock dives in the wake of these global events. Saras, a family-centred business, did not escape these negative impacts.
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In Vitol’s press statement, the company’s chairman and CEO, Massimo Moratti, said: “62 years after my father founded it, together with my nephews Angelo and Gabriele and my sons Angelomario and Giovanni, I believe that the best assurance for the future success of the Sarroch refinery is the aggregation with a leading player in the global energy sector, such as Vitol, with relational, managerial and financial resources, needed to compete in the current international market environment.”
The CEO of Vitol, Russell Hardy, added:
Our ambition is to invest in a strong Italian energy company, run by an empowered local management team and supported by Vitol’s expertise and market reach.
Saras closed Monday, 12 February 2024, trading on a negative 3.73%.
