CVR Energy to buy Marathon's St. Paul Park and Mandan refineries for ~$4.2B; Trafigura to invest $800M
What happened
CVR Energy announced a definitive agreement on November 3 to acquire Marathon Petroleum's St. Paul Park, Minnesota (105,000 bpd) and Mandan, North Dakota (72,000 bpd) refineries plus the related marketing business, for approximately $4.2 billion plus net working capital. Marathon will receive $3.45B for the refining assets and its midstream subsidiary MPLX $750M for related infrastructure. Commodities trader Trafigura will invest $800M in newly issued CVR shares at closing and become the exclusive crude-oil supplier and intermediation counterparty for the acquired refineries, with its combined equity and intermediation support exceeding $1B. The acquired business generated ~$1.2B of EBITDA for the trailing twelve months ended September 30, implying an acquisition multiple under 3.5x, with ~$70M of estimated annual run-rate synergies. The deal is expected to close by end of 2026, subject to antitrust clearance. Marathon separately reported a Q3 profit beat on stronger refining margins.
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Start your free 14-day trialWho’s affected
- CVI — transformative: crude throughput nearly doubles from ~207k to ~384k bpd and pro forma 9-month EBITDA doubles from ~$900M to ~$2B, but it adds $2.5B of secured debt
- MPC — receives $3.45B for the refining assets while MPLX gets $750M for related infrastructure; a clean divestiture of regional assets alongside a Q3 beat