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The Arval Group has sold its fuel card subsidiary Allstar Business Solutions to the global fuelcard provider FleetCor for £194m.
AllStar is a leading UK fuelcard provider, mainly serving small and medium businesses. It has about 40,000 customers and one million card holders.
It supplies clients directly and also through strategic partners like Arval leasing.
Allstar fuel cards are accepted by all major UK fuel brands including the leading supermarket chains.
Arval, owned by the BNP Paribas bank, and FleetCor have entered into a strategic partnership through which Arval will continue to provide fuel card payment solutions to its customers via Allstar for at least five years.
It said it decided to sell Allstar because it could not leverage the division further outside the UK and because the fuelcard company did not fit in with its core fleet management business model due to its function of delivering transactional services. It also suggested Allstar's growth prospects could be hindered by potential investors viewing Arval as a rival.
Arval said: "With this fundamental difference Allstar IT platforms require a specific approach and further third party growth will be enabled by removing the link to Arval as some potential third party partners view Arval as a direct competitor."
The firm insisted Allstar is highly profitable and well positioned for expansion.
"The sale is strategic and in no way a reflection of the performance of the Allstar business."
However, Arval denied the deal indicates it is about to hit the acquisition trail.
"The sale is not designed to generate funds for any particular reason," it claimed.
FleetCor expects the purchase of Allstar to boost its revenues and earnings from 2012.
It said the deal will result in no staff redundancies.
Andrew Blazye, head of FleetCor Europe, said: "We believe this sale is a positive move for Allstar employees, partners and customers. FleetCor brings global fuelcard expertise, best practices and experience to Allstar, which, we believe, will enable us to improve the products and services available to its customers."
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