Sasol Limited, which recently cleared the air concerning reports that it was selling downstream fuel retail business centres to South Africa’s Central Energy Fund, has announced that it is not considering the sale of its petrol stations as part of its assets disposal programme. The international integrated chemicals and energy company has 410 fuel retail centres across South Africa, which account for 11% of the regulated retail market in the country.

To pay off its accumulated debt within the given time frame, on the 12th of March 2020, the company announced that it was considering possible actions that could be taken to address the challenges of COVID-19 on its business, and how to balance its revenues due to the global decline in the prices of oil and chemical. A part of the measures taken to help ease the difficulties is the asset disposal programme.

According to the Chief Financial Officer of Sasol, Paul Victor, ”While Sasol is in the process of reviewing opportunities in this regard, it is important to note that we remain committed to our strategy, which includes growing our fuel retail presence in South Africa. Here, our focus remains on improving margins by looking for higher value markets for our existing production of fuels. This means both organic retail growth, by increasing our retail site development and conversion of sites to the Sasol brand, and possible small scale acquisitions.”

He further stated, ”Although we are regularly approached by interested parties to acquire or partner with us in the retail network space, we are not in discussions with any such parties to divest or partner in our downstream fuel retail business. While recent events have created significant short-term challenges, we are confident our business is fundamentally robust and we have a clear pathway to resume value creation.”

Sasol says that it has made progress on its review of the activities of the company in making it well-positioned for sustainability in a low price environment. The asset disposal has reportedly been yielding positive results as there has been considerable interest in several assets despite the current uncertainty of the market.