Citizens Commercial Banking’s Convenience and Retail Fuel Finance Group recently closed on a large five-year credit facility with Buchanan Energy LLC, a leading convenience store operator in the Chicago area.
Buchanan Energy supplies 83 Exxon/Mobil branded locations: operating 45 of those locations under the Bucky’s trade name, leasing 22 locations to franchise operators and supplying fuel to an additional 16 third-party dealers.
Citizens Commercial Banking, the commercial banking division of Providence-based Citizens Financial Group, is serving as administrative agent, collateral agent and LC Issuer for the transaction.
The transaction includes a term loan to refinance existing debt, a development line of credit that will be used to finance the development and/or acquisition of new locations, and a revolving line of credit to be used for working capital and letters of credit.
In addition to the loan facilities, Citizens Commercial Banking was able to provide the cash management solutions to meet the needs of company’s extensive retail network. Citizens was also able to provide Interest Rate Risk Management services to assist the company with their significant interest rate exposure.
“When we decided to refinance our credit facility, we trusted the team at Citizens Commercial Banking to complete a transaction of this size and deliver a loan structure that would meet the needs of our growing business,” said Steve Buchanan of Buchanan Energy. “This transaction will provide us with a platform to continue to grow both our retail network as well as our wholesale business. We would like to thank the team at Citizens Commercial Banking for their hard work during this process and their long-term commitment to our industry.”
“We appreciate the confidence in us shown by Steve and his management team. The successful closing of this transaction is testimony of the teamwork between our group and a valued customer and our continued focus on meeting the needs of growing, industry leaders,” said Mike Phelps, head of the Convenience and Retail Fuel Finance Group for Citizens Commercial Banking.
The Citizens Commercial Banking Convenience and Retail Fuel Finance Group is focused on meeting the banking and financing needs of the Retail Petroleum/C-Store Industries. With extensive industry expertise, Citizens Commercial Banking offers financial support to multi-unit operators and wholesalers nationwide that require credit facilities and national lending capabilities, risk management advisory services, and interest rate derivatives along with a full range of traditional commercial banking products and services.