Liquigaz Philippines Corp., one of the country’s liquefied petroleum gas suppliers, opened its pilot LPG retail store in Camarin, Caloocan City.
Liquigaz said in a statement the store opening marked the company’s strategic move to expand its retail business.
The LPG retail store caters to end-consumers, including nearby households, small businesses, and restaurants within a three to five-kilometer area.
Liquigaz said it planned to open 15 to 20 LPG retail stores within the year.
Liquigaz is a 90-percent-owned subsidiary of Cosco Capital Inc., the retail holding company of tycoon Lucio Co.
Cosco Capital acquired 90 percent of the capital stock of Liquigaz Philippines Inc. from SHV Energy of the Netherlands in July 2014.
Under the agreement, Cosco assumed control of the LPG provider while minority partner PR Gaz Inc. retained a 10-percent stake.
“The acquisition marks Cosco’s entry into the LPG business with a strong initial presence in the upstream business. Cosco envisions a move towards the downstream retail business in the near future via either mergers and acquisitions of existing re-fillers or establishing its own re-filling network and eventually retailing LPG directly to the wider household end user market,” Cosco president Leonardo Dayao said earlier.
Cosco said Liquigaz was the second largest supplier of LPG in the country accounting for 30 percent of total market volume. It is the biggest seller of LPG in Luzon, the site of its storage facilities.
Over 60 percent of the country’s total annual LPG importation is unloaded, stored and sold from Liquigaz’s 12,500-metric-ton storage tanks in Mariveles, Bataan, the largest such facility in the Philippines. It is also the only supplier capable of receiving both refrigerated and pressurized LPG cargo.
