Royal Dutch Shell said on Tuesday it was planning to sell its operations in Finland as part of a drive to focus its operations on bigger markets.
"We believe that the possible selling of our Finnish operations is an attractive opportunity to investors," Tony Patterson, the head of Shell's operations in the Nordic countries, said in a statement.
Shell is also selling its Swedish assets in an effort to cut its retail footprint and reduce the number of forecourts it has, though the firm will retain its operations in Denmark and Norway.
The company will sell the Finnish assets as a whole unit, but has not yet made any indication on price or outlined a timeline for the sale.
Shell has a subsidiary in Finland, which imports, produces, sells and markets fuels and lubricants. It has some 290 retail sites and some 325 staff in the Nordic country; though it does not have any refineries there.
The company has a 13 per cent share of the Finnish petrol marketÔÇöa market that, according to industry analysts, has slowed up and is no longer growing. For this reason, many companies operating within the sector in Finland are seeking to expand to the Baltic countries and Russia.
Other countries in which Shell is disposing operations include some in Africa, such as Uganda and Kenya. Assets are also due to be sold in New Zealand.
Commenting on the sales in Africa, Xavier le Mintier, executive vice president of Shell Oil Products Africa, said: ÔÇ£This decision is part of our drive to refocus our global downstream footprint into fewer, larger markets.ÔÇØ
He continued: ÔÇ£Early indications suggest there are a number of potential buyers interested in acquiring the businesses as going concerns and we will now enter into a round of negotiations, with a view to securing the optimum outcome for our shareholders, customers and staff.ÔÇØ
Mark Williams, Royal Dutch ShellÔÇÖs Downstream director, added: ÔÇ£The review is consistent with our strategy to concentrate our global downstream footprint and follows a number of similar reviews and divestments in other parts of the world.
ÔÇ£ShellÔÇÖs program of downstream asset sales will continue through planned exits from 15 percent of our world-wide refining capacity and 35 percent of our current retail markets, which equates to about 5 percent of Shell-branded retail sites around the world.ÔÇØ
Shell is headquartered in The Hague, Netherlands, and has operations in over 100 countries worldwide.
