Fuel giant BP has turned to law firm Corrs Chambers Westgarth as it seeks to seal its $1.8 billion Australian purchase.
As the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission launched its review of the BP/Woolworths fuels deal on Thursday, Street Talk can reveal BP has had Corrs' competition team beavering away in the background for some months in preparation for the examination.
BP is expected to argue that the Australian retail fuel market as a whole is highly competitive and that would not change should it acquire Woolies' petrol unit.
The fuel giant already operates about 350-company owned retail sites across the country - or about 5 per cent of the market - and supplies fuel to another 1000 sites which are owned independently and branded as BP.
Post acquisition, BP would have about 1927 sites in its stable on Credit Suisse's numbers, making it about the same size as arch-rival Caltex (1900) and bigger than Shell (980) and Coles Express (692).
However it would operate only 12 per cent of Australian fuel sites.
In reality, BP can argue the 12 per cent number all it likes but the competition regulator will look at the deal on a location-by-location basis.
BP knows this and is will be offering to divest a small portion of the portfolio. While the deal is expected to pass muster with the ACCC in some form, it is just a matter of how many sites it will be asked to give up.
The other part of its argument will be benefits to consumers that it says would stem from the acquisition.
BP has had plenty of time to prepare for the ACCC's review. And Woolworths, which has Clayton Utz lawyers in its corner, will also be doing its best to convince the regulator so it can bank the expected $1.785 billion proceeds as soon as practicable.
BP and Woolworths expect it could take 12-months for the deal to complete.
The ACCC flagged the review on Thursday, however is yet to receive BP's formal submission.
Credit Suisse analysts reckon that BP's best case scenario is that 10 per cent of the Woolworths sites would be required to be sold under the ACCC review.
