MILAN (Reuters) – -Italiana Petroli’s founding family is nearing the sale of the oil refiner to State Oil Company of Azerbaijan (SOCAR) in a deal that would hand the group control of one of Italy’s largest petrol station networks, three sources said.
A deal with SOCAR is expected to be signed as early as Monday, two of the people said, barring any last-minute postponement.
The sources did not give details of the financial terms of the agreement.
People close to the matter had previously told Reuters Italy’s Brachetti-Peretti family was seeking an enterprise value of around 2.5 billion euros ($2.9 billion) for their company, which holds some 500 million euros in cash.
SOCAR and Italiana Petroli did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
SOCAR is being advised by Italy’s Intesa Sanpaolo IMI CIB with UniCredit advising the owner of Italiana Petroli.
($1 = 0.8524 euros)
(Reporting by Francesca Landini, Valentina Za, Elvira Pollina in Milan and Ahmad Ghaddar in London; Additional reporting by Nailia Bagirova in Baku;Editing by Kirsten Donovan)
