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THE country’s biggest fuel retailer, Viva Energy Australia (VEA), has been hit with a huge $31.2 million bill for the transfer of properties into its property trust, the listed Viva Energy REIT, with a payment deadline of next month.

In a statement, VEA said it will fight the bill presented this week by the Victorian State Revenue Office (SRO).

The SRO said the amount owing referred to the transfer of property just prior to the listing of Viva Energy REIT’s float in August 2016.

The SRO is also in a disagreement with the Victorian Automobile Chamber of Commerce (VACC) and its dealership members over stamp duty applied to demonstrator cars.

VEA said it will take its objection to the commissioner of State Revenue.

In the event that VEA is unsuccessful, it has made notice that shareholders should be prepared for a “significant one-off item” that will greatly affect its financial statements for the current financial year.

The transfer of property was detailed in the prospectus of the company.

VEA bought more than 900 Shell branded service stations plus the Geelong refinery and listed in a public float valued at almost $5 billion.

Together with previous retail outlets, VEA owns 1165 service stations in Australia. These include outlets under the Shell and Coles Express names. It also owns 50 per cent of Liberty Oil service stations.

VEA now supplies about 25 per cent of Australia’s total fuel consumption each year, equivalent to about 14 billion litres.

By Neil Dowling

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