TravelCenters of America announced late Wednesday that it has acquired the operating businesses of Petro Stopping Centers. Simultaneously with this acquisition, 40 Petro travel centers were leased from Hospitality Properties Trust.

Prior to this acquisition, Petro was a privately owned company headquartered in El Paso, Texas, which was majority owned by a Texas family and minority owned by affiliates of Exxon Mobil and AB Volvo of Sweden.
Petro operates and franchises 69 travel centers along the U.S. Interstate Highway System in 33 states. Petro owns and operates 44 travel centers, franchises 24 travel centers and operates one travel center for a joint venture that is partially owned by Petro.
The travel centers operated by Petro are similar to, but generally newer and larger than, the 164 travel centers TA currently operates and franchises.
Simultaneously with TA's acquisition of Petro, HPT acquired 40 Petro travel centers and leased them to TA under a long-term lease. In addition to its purchase price of approximately $630 million, HPT has agreed to pay certain costs of this transaction.
Substantially all of the other assets of Petro were acquired by TA, including two owned centers, one partially owned center and two leased centers operated by Petro, Petro's franchisee business, which provides services to 24 centers operated by Petro franchisees, related businesses, land sites acquired for future development of new travel centers, inventory and other working capital.
TA's purchase price for these assets, including closing costs and the cost of certain Petro employee retention payments, is approximately $70 million.