Germany's leading motorway concessions for petrol stations, shops, restaurants and hotels
Tank & Rast sits at the core of Germany’s transport network as an essential infrastructure asset due to its market leading position on Europe’s busiest motorway network, the German autobahn. It held 90 per cent of German motorway concessions for petrol stations, shops, restaurants and hotels. This included around 390 service areas, 350 filling stations and 50 hotels. The highly cash- generative and stable-tenanted operating model is supported by long-term government concessions and a significant fixed revenue component, with revenues diversified across retail, restaurants, advertising and concession fees, toilet facilities and fuel sales.
At acquisition in 2004, traveller penetration, conversion rates and expenditure per km travelled were significantly below other European countries, offering room for Tank & Rast to better utilise the strength of its position on the autobahn. The business also had a large tenant base, meaning there was an opportunity to enhance performance by allowing the most effective tenants to operate more sites.
Tank & Rast improved the visibility of its service stations and brands on the autobahn, gaining agreement from the federal and regional governments to introduce new signage on the motorway, something which previously had been banned. It also identified the potential for additional value in its fuel supply arrangements and successfully renegotiated a new tendering system for 30 per cent of its service stations.
The company improved its food offering, including a better retail proposition. It introduced the premium Sanifair toilet facilities across its network with great success and was rolled out to third parties in Germany and Europe. Tank & Rast also created a new motorway service station brand called Serways which incorporated the new retail and food offerings and improved the quality of its service and facilities.
In December 2013, Tank & Rast completed a €2.1 billion refinancing, which lowered the cost of debt and introduced longer-dated facilities with staggered maturities, mitigating future refinancing risk. In 2014, Terra Firma took advantage of buoyant debt markets and repriced the term loan debt (€1.4 billion) thereby further lowering the cost of debt and cash interest payments.
In August 2015, Terra Firma and Deutsche Asset & Wealth Management announced the sale of Tank & Rast to Allianz Capital Partners GmbH, Borealis Infrastructure Management Inc, Infinity Investments SA, a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Abu Dhabi Investment Authority (ADIA), and MEAG, Munich Re (Group)’s asset manager.