Regency Petroleum comes to town

Regency Petroleum Company has got the green light to set up a gas station in Kingston, which will open for business a year from now.

The petrol station, intended for Spanish Town Road, adjacent to the Trench Town Fire Station, will be the company’s fourth, but its first outside its home base in Westmoreland.

Up to now, the company, which went public and listed on the Jamaica Stock Exchange last year, has mostly concentrated its petroleum trading activities in western Jamaica, and its sale of bulk and retail LPG, or cooking gas, to central and western parishes. Regency Petroleum CEO Andrew Williams says the new station will carry four double-sided pumps, while a convenience store will also be operated there by the owner of the land on which the gas station will be developed. Regency is leasing the property under terms that were not disclosed, but will develop the complex itself as a brownfield project.

The location previously had a gas station and tyre repair facility dating back to the early 1950s. It was shuttered and stripped in the mid-1970s.

Titles Office documents indicate that the listed owner is Leighton Smith & Company Incorporated Limited, which acquired the property from the McIntosh family in May 2019 for $8 million.

Regarding construction of the station, Williams said Regency was in the process of procuring the equipment, which “will have to be imported and will be customised for the location”, he said.

The projected cost of the development is $200 million, the financing for which, Williams noted, would be backed by GK Capital.

“Everything will be brand new. We’re starting from scratch, and that covers everything – from the stalls to the pumps, the canopy and the convenience store,” he said.

Regency is one of two petroleum trading companies now listed on the junior market of the stock exchange.

Its IPO raised $287 million, which was used to retire debt and complete the Paradise and Negril gas stations that are slated for opening in June. Those two will join the sole station currently in operation at Great Georges Street in Savanna-la-Mar.

Regency turned over $681 million in sales last year, which puts them far behind the other petroleum trader Fesco, which entered the stock market in 2021, and has seen a phenomenal rise in business since, with annual revenues now trending towards an annualised $26 billion.

Regency Petroleum closed trading on Wednesday with a market value of about $3.75 billion, while Fesco’s value topped $10 billion.

neville.graham@gleanerjm.com