Circle K Corp

Circle K Corp., a convenience store chain that is in bankruptcy, announced Wednesday that it has agreed to be purchased for $375 million by an investor group that includes the owner of Saks Fifth Avenue. The sale price is $50 million less than the $425 million CK Acquisitions tentatively agreed to pay in March.

Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc., Canada's biggest convenience-store operator, agreed to buy ConocoPhillips' Circle K gas stations for $830 million to almost quadruple the size of its U.S. business. The purchase of the 1,663 stations would make Montreal-based Couche-Tard North America's No. 4 convenience-store operator, up from seventh.

Oil Companies Sue Circle K Corp.: A group of property owners and two oil companies--Thrifty Oil Co. and Golden West Refining Co.--filed suit in Superior Court on Wednesday against the Circle K Corp. alleging that the Arizona-based operator of convenience stores breached its 15-year property leases and gas purchase agreements at 88 sites around California. Circle K has not paid any rent on the properties since Jan. 1, said Donald Smaltz, the plaintiffs' attorney.

As many as 550 workers--about half of them in Orange County--will lose their jobs at 76 Products when it is taken over later this month by the company that owns Circle K convenience stores, an executive said Monday. 76 Products President Lawrence Higby said Tosco Corp. will shift his company's headquarters to Phoenix, although several hundred people will likely remain at the state-of-the-art, high-rise office building here. Some of the job losses are voluntary, Higby said.

Circle K Bids for Store Chain: Circle K Corp. offered to buy National Convenience Stores Inc. for $17 a share in cash, or about $103 million, in a combination that would operate or franchise more than 3,100 convenience stores. Phoenix-based Circle K said it would assume about $100 million of National Convenience debt, for a total transaction value of $203 million. The new entity would have stores in 28 states, with annual revenue of about $4.5 billion, Circle K said.

Tosco Corp. agreed Friday to buy Circle K Corp. in a $900-million deal that would more than double Tosco's gasoline sales and make it the nation's largest operator of company-owned convenience stores. The purchase is the latest in a stream of major acquisitions for Stamford, Conn.-based Tosco, which has aggressively expanded market share as other companies have pulled out of the volatile refining and marketing industry.

National Convenience Stores Target of Hostile Bid: Circle K Corp. said it will begin a $20-a-share hostile offer for the company and that it filed two lawsuits seeking to kill National Convenience's takeover defenses, including the Houston-based company's new "poison pill." Circle K values the offer at about $232 million, including the assumption of about $103 million in National Convenience debt.

Unocal to Revamp, Add Gas Stations: Unocal Corp. told Wall Street analysts that it will spend $250 million over the next three years to improve existing service stations in an effort to double pretax cash flow from the Los Angeles-based oil company's refining and marketing units. Meanwhile, Unocal and Circle K Corp.

Three years after Circle K Corp.'s overambitious expansion plans landed it in bankruptcy court, the convenience store operator--minus much of its debt and 1,900 outlets--is close to completing its reorganization. Circle K is proposing that some of its major creditors receive $399.5 million that an investment group has offered for the Phoenix-based company. U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge George B. Nielsen Jr.

Circle K Bankruptcy Plan Amended: Commonwealth Oil Refining Co. revised its reorganization plan for Circle K Corp. to include $390 million in cash to creditors, most of it supplied by a Saudi prince. Under the amended plan to be filed later this week, one of three competing for the convenience store chain, the Saudi prince would acquire a minority interest in Irving, Tex.-based Commonwealth.

Circle K Bankruptcy Plan Amended: Commonwealth Oil Refining Co. revised its reorganization plan for Circle K Corp. to include $390 million in cash to creditors, most of it supplied by a Saudi prince. Under the amended plan to be filed later this week, one of three competing for the convenience store chain, the Saudi prince would acquire a minority interest in Irving, Tex.-based Commonwealth.

Circle K Corp.: The Phoenix-based convenience store operator reported that net income plunged 75% to $15.4 million for fiscal 1989. Revenue totaled $3.5 billion, up 31%. The results include an after-tax gain of about $19.1 million from the disposition of assets. The company said grocery gross margins continued to decline during the fourth quarter as a result of industry pressures and inventory adjustments and that it experienced increases in operating expenses due to higher interest costs and depreciation related to the recent acquisitions of more than 1,000 stores and new store construction.