CALGARY – Parkland Corp., which has been under pressure from major shareholders to improve its share price, has announced plans to review strategic alternatives, including the possible sale of the company.
The Calgary-based fuel refiner and retailer says a special board committee made up of independent directors will look at its business strategy and ways to boost returns to shareholders.
These could include asset sales and purchases, a merger or putting the whole company up for sale.
Parkland also announced a quarterly net loss of $29 million during the last three months of 2024, compared to net earnings of $86 million during the same period a year earlier.
That amounted to a loss of 17 cents per diluted share compared to earnings of 48 cents per diluted share in the same 2023 quarter.
Sales and operating revenue dropped to $6.73 billion in the third quarter of 2024, down from $7.75 billion in the same period a year earlier.
U.S.-based activist investor Engine Capital LP and Parkland’s largest shareholder Simpson Oil Ltd. have called on the company to conduct a review of strategic alternatives, including a possible sale.
Parkland has in the past said such a review is unnecessary and does not consider the best interests of the majority of its shareholders, but on Wednesday board chair Michael Jennings said the company’s intrinsic value is not reflected in its share price.
As a result, the board believes the strategic review is a “necessary step to explore opportunities to maximize value creation for all shareholders,” Jennings said in a news release.
He also said Parkland is inviting Simpson Oil to rejoin the company’s board and participate in the special committee.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 5, 2025.
Companies in this story: (TSX: PKI)
Note to readers:This is a corrected story; An earlier version said Linamar was inviting Simpson Oil to rejoin the company’s board.
