DCC plc (DCC.L) — Company Research

Last Updated: 22 September 2026

DCC plc no longer exists under that name, and on current expectations it will not exist as a listed company for much longer. The Dublin-headquartered distributor renamed itself DCC Energy plc on 17 July 2026, and ten days later recommended a cash takeover by funds advised by Energy Capital Partners and KKR. Shareholders approved the scheme of arrangement on 18 September 2026 and completion is expected in the first quarter of 2027. Behind that headline sits a business that spent two years dismantling itself — Healthcare sold, the Info Tech arm sold, £700m returned to shareholders — in order to become a focused multi-energy distributor. It is not quite there: the residual technology business, rebranded Nexora, is still owned, still unsold, and still inside continuing operations. This report covers the company as it stands, with no analyst opinions and no price targets.

1. Company Snapshot

Field	Value
Legal name	DCC Energy Public Limited Company, formerly DCC plc (Irish CRO number 54858, incorporated 9 April 1976). Name change registered 17 July 2026, trading under it from 20 July 2026
Headquarters	DCC House, Leopardstown Road, Foxrock, Dublin 18, D18 PK00, Ireland
Exchange / ticker	London Stock Exchange Main Market, DCC (DCC.L). ISIN IE0002424939. EUR0.25 ordinary shares traded in sterling as CDIs. TIDM, ISIN and SEDOL unchanged by the renaming
Index membership	FTSE 100, FTSE All-Share, FTSE 350, FTSE 350 High Yield. Unaffected by the September 2026 FTSE UK index review
Sector	Industrial Services — downstream multi-energy sales, marketing and distribution
CEO / Leadership	Donal Murphy, Chief Executive since July 2017 and on the board since November 2008. CFO Conor Murphy, appointed 10 July 2025. COO Kevin Lucey. Chair Mark Breuer
Employees	11,700 full-time equivalents at 31 March 2026, down from 16,777, reflecting the Healthcare and Info Tech disposals
Revenue (FY2026)	£15,442m from continuing operations, down 2.9%; £16,920m including discontinued operations
Net income proxy (FY2026)	Continuing statutory basic EPS 288.52p; continuing adjusted basic EPS 438.12p, up 9.9%. Total statutory basic EPS of 14.16p reflects a £320.1m net exceptional charge
Adjusted operating profit (FY2026)	£634.0m from continuing operations, up 3.6%; group return on capital employed 16.8%
Market cap	£5.50bn at 22 September 2026
Share price	6,435.00p on 22 September 2026; previous close 6,425.00p
Shares outstanding	85,424,135 with voting rights; 87,609,229 in issue including 2,185,094 held in treasury
Corporate status	In an offer period. Recommended cash acquisition by Dragon Bidco Limited (Energy Capital Partners and KKR) approved by shareholders 18 September 2026; completion expected Q1 2027
Reporting currency / year end	Pounds sterling; 31 March. Half-yearly reporting with Q1 and Q3 trading statements

Because DCC is in an offer period under the Irish Takeover Rules, the board is expressly limited in what it can say publicly. No quantified FY2027 guidance has been issued, and the Chair's statement in the 2026 Annual Report says so directly.

2. Bull Case and Bear Case

Bull Case

• A firm, final, approved cash offer: 6,525p base consideration plus the 147.22p final dividend already paid, with up to a further 125p contingent on the Nexora sale. Shareholders approved the scheme on 18 September 2026 with 78.09% of votes cast in favour, and every director holding shares gave an irrevocable undertaking.
• The energy business earns its keep: DCC Energy delivered £554.2m of adjusted operating profit on a 18.8% return on capital employed in FY2026, roughly double the 9.7% earned by the technology business. Energy Products operating profit rose 11.1% even as volumes fell 3.1%, because margin per litre expanded from 3.3p to 3.8p.
• Cash conversion and balance-sheet strength: free cash flow of £689.6m represented 108% conversion of adjusted operating profit. Net debt of £690.5m excluding leases is 0.9 times EBITDA, interest is covered 9.8 times, and both Fitch and S&P reaffirmed BBB.
• A repeatable acquisition machine: DCC bought FLAGA in Austria, AvantiGas cylinders in the UK and UGI's liquid gas platforms in Poland, Hungary, Czechia and Slovakia within a year, for roughly £112m of committed spend funded from free cash flow and underwritten to mid-teens returns in year two. Thirty-two years of unbroken dividend growth at a 12.7% compound rate sit behind that record.

Bear Case

• The shares are a deal spread, not a valuation: at 6,435p the stock trades 1.4% below the 6,525p base cash terms. Fundamental analysis has been largely displaced by completion probability, and a Rule 32.2 no-increase statement on 2 September 2026 removed any prospect of a higher price.
• Completion is not certain: the scheme still requires Irish High Court sanction and a long list of merger-control, foreign-subsidy and national-security clearances across the EU, UK, US, Israel, Serbia, Switzerland, Turkey and eleven FDI regimes. None had been announced as at 22 September 2026, and the long stop date is 31 July 2027. A lapse would likely return the shares toward the 5,380p undisturbed price.
• Energy Services has broken down: adjusted operating profit fell 67.5% to £15.7m and the margin collapsed from 14.3% to 4.6%. DCC exited Dutch solar distribution with a £43.2m impairment, and took a £24.4m credit because UK Energy Services earn-outs will not be paid. This was the growth leg of the energy transition story.
• Volumes are structurally declining: group volumes fell 3.2% in FY2026, with Energy Products down 3.1% and Mobility down 3.4%. All the profit growth came from margin per litre, which is a management lever with a finite runway, not market growth.
• Disposals have destroyed value, not just simplified: the Info Tech sale produced a £278.8m loss including a £228.6m impairment. Nexora remains unsold, and up to 125p per share of the offer — roughly £107m — hangs on achieving at least US$800m of net proceeds by 31 July 2027.

3. Revenue Segments

DCC reports two operating segments on a continuing basis for FY2026. Healthcare and the Info Tech business are treated as discontinued; the residual technology business, Nexora, is not.

Segment	% of revenue	What it is
DCC Energy — £12,990.4m	84.1%	Multi-energy sales and distribution across Europe and the United States, mainly off-grid solutions led by liquid gas, plus service stations and fleet services. Adjusted operating profit £554.2m, 87.4% of group; return on capital employed 18.8%
DCC Technology (Nexora) — £2,451.5m	15.9%	Intelligent technology solutions across professional AV, professional audio, enterprise infrastructure and consumer technologies, predominantly North America with a smaller European business and around 2,500 staff. Adjusted operating profit £79.8m, 12.6% of group; return on capital employed 9.7%. A sale process is running, with agreement targeted by the end of calendar 2026
Segment / category: Energy Solutions (within DCC Energy)	~76% of DCC Energy profit	Bulk and cylinder liquid gas, heating oil, transport fuels, gas and power supply, plus solar, HVAC and energy-efficiency services. Gross profit £1,563m, adjusted operating profit £419.8m. Energy Products earned 3.8p operating profit per litre against 3.3p the year before; Energy Services revenue was £342.0m with profit down 67.5% to £15.7m
Segment / category: Energy Mobility (within DCC Energy)	~24% of DCC Energy profit	Retail service stations and truck stops in France, Luxembourg, the UK and the Nordics, plus fleet services including fuel cards, telematics and digital truck parking. Adjusted operating profit £134.4m, up 8.6%; gross fuel margin 7.2p per litre against 6.5p; non-fuel gross profit up 17.4% to £122.1m

By geography, continuing revenue splits as United Kingdom £4,332.9m, Rest of World £4,684.7m, France £3,110.8m, United States £1,734.7m and Republic of Ireland £1,578.8m, across 16 countries.

4. Business Model & Moat

How it makes money, and why revenue is the wrong number to watch. DCC states plainly that revenue is not a primary performance measure for DCC Energy, because reported revenue is dominated by the underlying commodity price while the business operates on a unit-margin basis. Management assesses the business on volume and pence of margin per litre. In FY2026 Energy Products sold 10.6 billion litre-equivalents, down 3.1%, yet grew adjusted operating profit 11.1% — the entire gain came from margin per litre rising from 3.3p to 3.8p. Mobility did the same thing deliberately, describing network optimisation that produced "lower, but more profitable, volumes". A distributor that can raise unit margin while shedding unprofitable volume has pricing discipline; one that cannot is simply a commodity pass-through.

Negative working capital is a structural advantage. Absolute group working capital at 31 March 2026 was £23.2m, equivalent to 0.4 days of sales against 5.7 days the prior year, and working capital released £71.4m of cash during the year. DCC is candid that this is partly a function of elevated commodity prices and would reverse if prices normalised. Supply chain financing ceased to be a feature of the group after the Info Tech disposal, having stood at £156.0m a year earlier.

Buy and build in fragmented markets. The repeatable pattern is consolidating national liquid gas markets that no single player dominates. In one twelve-month window DCC bought FLAGA in Austria and AvantiGas cylinders in the UK from UGI International, then agreed to acquire UGI's platforms in Poland, Hungary, Czechia and Slovakia for about EUR48m enterprise value — more than 200 million litres and roughly 30,000 customers, underwritten to mid-teens return on capital by year two. Committed acquisition spend was £112.4m in FY2026 and £115.3m in FY2025: deliberately bolt-on scale, funded from free cash flow rather than from the balance sheet.

Capital discipline is the actual moat. Net capital expenditure of £168.1m sat only £11.5m above the £156.6m depreciation charge, so the asset base is being maintained rather than expanded, and free cash flow converted at 108% of adjusted operating profit. Over 32 years as a public company DCC has compounded adjusted operating profit at 14% a year with unbroken dividend growth. The counterweight is that this discipline is now being applied to a business whose core volumes are in structural decline.

5. Financial Health

The revenue series below has been restated twice as divisions were sold, and the bases are not comparable across all five years. FY2022 to FY2024 are total group figures covering Energy, Healthcare and Technology. FY2025 and FY2026 are continuing operations only, excluding Healthcare, Info Tech and the Dutch technology business. Read the table with that in mind.

Fiscal Year	Revenue (£m)	YoY %	GAAP EPS	Adjusted EPS	Dividend/share	Long-term debt (YE)
FY2022 (to 31 Mar 2022)	17,732†	—	316.78p	430.11p	175.78p	—
FY2023 (to 31 Mar 2023)	22,205†	+25.2%	338.40p	456.27p	187.21p	—
FY2024 (to 31 Mar 2024)	19,859†	-10.6%	330.24p	455.01p	196.57p	£1,574.8m
FY2025 (to 31 Mar 2025)	15,904‡	-19.9%‡	295.87p	398.50p	206.40p	£1,849.2m
FY2026 (to 31 Mar 2026)	15,442‡	-2.9%	288.52p	438.12p	216.72p	£1,653.7m

† Total group as originally reported, including Healthcare and all of Technology. ‡ Continuing operations as restated in the FY2026 accounts, excluding Healthcare, Info Tech and the Dutch technology business; the FY2025 year-on-year figure of -19.9% is therefore a basis effect rather than a trading decline, and on a like-for-like continuing basis FY2025 revenue fell about 4.5%. EPS figures for FY2025 and FY2026 are continuing operations, basic. Total FY2026 statutory basic EPS including discontinued operations was 14.16p, after a £320.1m net exceptional charge dominated by the £278.8m loss on the Info Tech disposal. Long-term debt is non-current borrowings from the balance sheet, excluding lease liabilities of £311.6m non-current at 31 March 2026; FY2022 and FY2023 non-current borrowings were not disclosed in the retrieved filings, and net debt excluding lease creditors for those years was £419.9m and £767.3m respectively.

DCC reports half-yearly. The table below is most recent period first, with the FY2026 total in bold at the foot. All figures are continuing operations.

Quarter / Half	Revenue	Adjusted EPS	GAAP EPS
H2 FY2026 (to 31 Mar 2026, derived)†	£8,061.2m	317.28p	292.55p
H1 FY2026 (to 30 Sep 2025)	£7,380.7m	120.84p	-4.03p
H1 FY2025 (to 30 Sep 2024, restated)	£7,944.6m	126.13p	77.05p
FY2026 total (continuing)	£15,441.9m	438.12p	288.52p

† DCC does not report a standalone second half. The H2 FY2026 row is derived by subtracting the reported H1 FY2026 figures from the reported FY2026 figures, and is shown for shape only. The negative H1 FY2026 statutory EPS reflects exceptional disposal charges taken in that half.

Cash flow and balance sheet, FY2026. Net cash generated from operating activities was £672.5m, up from £582.0m. The cash flow statement shows £209.5m of gross purchases of property, plant and equipment; management's net capital expenditure measure, after £40.5m of disposal proceeds and £0.8m of grants, was £168.1m. Depreciation excluding right-of-use assets was £156.6m, right-of-use depreciation £85.4m, and amortisation of acquisition-related intangibles £101.0m — about £343.0m of depreciation and amortisation in total, alongside a separate £43.2m impairment on the Dutch solar exit. Statutory continuing operating profit was £461.0m and adjusted continuing operating profit £634.0m; continuing profit before tax was £374.1m.

Debt and capital returns. Non-current borrowings were £1,653.7m and current borrowings £231.7m at 31 March 2026, against cash and cash equivalents of £1,085.6m and lease liabilities of £389.8m. Reported net debt was £690.5m excluding lease creditors and £1,080.3m including them — 0.9 times EBITDA, with interest covered 9.8 times, roughly 75% of gross debt at fixed rates and average term-debt maturity of four years. Total equity fell from £3,168.3m to £2,363.6m, almost entirely because of the £700m returned to shareholders during the year: a £100m on-market buyback completed 12 September 2025 at an average £47.19, and a £600m tender offer completed 19 December 2025 at a £51.70 strike. Together those cancelled 13.9% of the share capital. A residual £100m is deferred until the unconditional Healthcare consideration arrives, anticipated Autumn 2027.

FY2027 guidance. None has been quantified, because the company is in an offer period. The only forward read is the AGM trading statement of 16 July 2026, which said first-quarter continuing group operating profit was in line with expectations and ahead of the prior year, with both DCC Energy and DCC Technology ahead. The 2030 ambition to double DCC Energy operating profit to £830m from the FY2022 base remains stated but is expressly not a profit forecast, and its fate passes to the new owners on completion.

You can follow the price action and the deal spread on the ChartsView Live Charts page.

6. Valuation Metrics

Raw metrics, September 2026. Not opinions on whether the stock is cheap or expensive.

Metric	Value
Share price	6,435.00p on 22 September 2026; previous close 6,425.00p
Market cap	£5.50bn (6,435p on 85,424,135 voting shares)
Trailing P/E (GAAP)	~22.3x on FY2026 continuing statutory basic EPS of 288.52p. On FY2026 continuing adjusted basic EPS of 438.12p the multiple is about 14.7x. The published figure of roughly 454x uses total statutory basic EPS of 14.16p, which is an artefact of the £320.1m disposal-related exceptional charge rather than a valuation signal
P/E (forward)	n/m — no consensus forecast is published, because under the Irish Takeover Rules analyst estimates become unreliable during an offer period and DCC publishes broker coverage without a consensus table. The only hard forward datapoint is the median analyst twelve-month target of 6,000p cited in the Rule 2.7 announcement as at the undisturbed date
P/S (TTM)	0.36x (£5.50bn market cap / £15,442m FY2026 continuing revenue). On total group revenue of £16,920m including discontinued operations it is 0.33x. The ratio is structurally tiny because revenue is largely a pass-through of commodity cost in a unit-margin distributor
Enterprise value	~£6.30bn (market cap ~£5.50bn + total debt ~£1,885m − cash ~£1,086m per the 31 March 2026 balance sheet; total debt is £231.7m current borrowings plus £1,653.7m non-current borrowings). Including £389.8m of lease liabilities the figure is about £6.69bn. DCC's own reported net debt of £690.5m is lower than the gross debt less cash used here because it also nets off £109.4m of derivative assets
EV/EBITDA (TTM)	~7.8x (EV ~£6.30bn / EBITDA ~£804m; EBITDA = FY2026 continuing statutory operating profit £461.0m + D&A £343.0m, using the wider total of £156.6m depreciation excluding right-of-use assets, £85.4m right-of-use depreciation and £101.0m intangible amortisation). Statutory operating profit is depressed by the £43.2m Dutch solar impairment and £45.7m of restructuring costs; on adjusted continuing operating profit of £634.0m plus £242.0m of depreciation the multiple is about 7.2x
P/FCF	~11.9x (market cap ~£5.50bn / FCF ~£463m; FCF = operating cash flow £672.5m − capex £209.5m per the FY2026 cash flow statement). DCC's own free cash flow measure of £689.6m, equal to 108% conversion, is defined differently and uses net rather than gross capital expenditure
52-week high	6,740.00p, set 14 July 2026
52-week low	4,188.00p, set 6 January 2026
Short interest (% of float)	Below the 0.2% FCA publication threshold as at 21 September 2026, so no aggregate figure is published. Under the anonymised regime introduced on 13 July 2026 the aggregate peaked at 0.99% on 21 July 2026, around the improved bid, and fell to 0.28% by 28 July 2026 before dropping off the list. The FCA reports against issued share capital rather than free float. Verify at the FCA net short positions register
Days to cover	n/a — not published by any source, and not derivable while the aggregate short position sits below the FCA disclosure threshold
Offer terms	6,525.00p base cash consideration, plus the 147.22p final dividend already paid on 23 July 2026, plus up to 125.00p contingent on Nexora net proceeds of at least US$800m by 31 July 2027. Maximum 6,797.22p. At 6,435p the shares sit 1.4% below the base terms and 5.5% below base plus contingent
Dividend / yield	209.71p trailing, 3.26% at 6,435p; on the declared FY2026 dividend of 216.72p the yield is 3.37%. Cover 2.0 times by continuing adjusted EPS
Net debt / EBITDA	0.9x at 31 March 2026, with interest covered 9.8 times. BBB from Fitch and S&P

7. What Are They Building

The strategy announced on 12 November 2024 was to simplify the group and concentrate on DCC Energy as the largest and highest-returning division. The execution sequence has been mechanical: Healthcare out in September 2025, Info Tech out in November 2025, £700m returned to shareholders during FY2026, the name changed to DCC Energy plc in July 2026, and Nexora to follow once a buyer is agreed. The destination is a focused multi-energy business in which DCC Energy already accounts for 87% of adjusted operating profit.

Liquid gas is the declared spearhead. Every material acquisition of the past two years has been liquid petroleum gas: FLAGA in Austria, AvantiGas cylinders in the UK, and the four-country UGI platform in Poland, Hungary, Czechia and Slovakia that completed in late May 2026, ahead of its original timetable. The medium-term ambition is to double DCC Energy operating profit to £830m by 2030 from the FY2022 base, which requires roughly £276m of incremental profit over four years from the £554.2m delivered in FY2026. It is labelled an ambition, not a forecast.

Renewable fuels are advancing; renewable services are not. The biogenic content of energy products sold rose to 7.5% of gigajoules from 7.1%. Certa Ireland is fuelling Tesco's lower-carbon delivery fleet, Flogas Sweden ran a world-first industrial use of renewable DME in forging, and Flogas Britain is supporting ammonia-based industrial heat. Against that, the Energy Services arm — solar, HVAC, energy efficiency — saw adjusted operating profit fall 67.5% to £15.7m and DCC exited Dutch solar distribution entirely with a £43.2m impairment, citing a continued deterioration in the medium-term outlook. Management attributes the weakness to customers having temporarily stepped back from discretionary sustainability spend in favour of cost and short-term energy security.

Mobility is being reinvested rather than harvested. Capital went into electric vehicle fast charging, enhanced forecourt services, convenience retail and car washes, with non-fuel gross profit up 17.4% to £122.1m — the fastest-growing line in the group and the one least exposed to fuel volume decline.

Decarbonisation targets. Scope 3 emissions down 35% by 2030 against an FY2022 baseline, with 4.0% achieved in FY2026 and 14.2% cumulatively; Scope 1 and 2 down 50% by 2030 against 2019, with 7.4% achieved in FY2026 and 44.7% cumulatively. DCC holds a CDP A rating and MSCI AAA.

The obvious caveat on all of this: on completion of the scheme, strategy passes to Energy Capital Partners and KKR. Whether the 2030 ambition, the capital allocation framework or the dividend policy survive in their present form cannot be determined from public disclosure.

8. Peer Comparison

Peer	Market cap (September 2026)	Key 2025 metric
DCC Energy (DCC.L)	£5.50bn, 22 Sep 2026	FY2026 continuing revenue £15,442m, -2.9%; adjusted operating profit £634.0m, +3.6%; return on capital employed 16.8%; free cash flow £689.6m at 108% conversion
Bunzl (BNZL.L)	£8.30bn, close 21 Sep 2026	FY2025 revenue £11,845.4m, +0.6% reported and +3.0% at constant currency; adjusted operating profit £910.3m, -4.3% constant currency; adjusted EPS 179.3p (reported 2 March 2026)
Sunoco LP (SUN)	US$15.30bn, 21 Sep 2026	FY2025 adjusted EBITDA attributable to SUN of US$2.047bn against US$1.457bn in 2024, on revenues of US$25,201m, following the Parkland acquisition completed 31 October 2025 (reported 17 February 2026)
UGI Corporation (UGI)	US$7.97bn, close 21 Sep 2026	FY2025 adjusted diluted EPS US$3.32 against US$3.06, on revenues of US$7,287m and segment EBIT of US$1,176m, for the year to 30 September 2025 (reported 20 November 2025). UGI is also the counterparty that sold DCC its FLAGA, AvantiGas and Central European liquid gas businesses
Rubis (RUI.PA)	EUR 3.69bn, close 21 Sep 2026	FY2025 net income group share of EUR 309m, up 19%, with EBITDA of EUR 741m at the upper end of guidance and a proposed dividend of EUR 2.07, a thirtieth consecutive year of growth (reported 12 March 2026)
World Kinect (WKC)	US$1.82bn, 21 Sep 2026	FY2025 revenue US$36,917m, down 12%, with gross profit of US$948m and adjusted EBITDA of US$336m; a GAAP net loss of US$614m after Land-segment impairments against adjusted net income of US$107m (reported 19 February 2026)

9. Insider Activity

Chief Executive Donal Murphy, who has run DCC since July 2017, holds 186,721 shares, up from 174,075 a year earlier. The striking feature of the record is what is absent: across the complete RNS index from 1 January 2026 to 21 September 2026 there were no insider transactions by any director or person discharging managerial responsibility. The FY2026 Annual Report independently confirms no change in directors' and secretary's interests between 31 March and 18 May 2026, and no PDMR notification accompanied the December 2025 tender offer — directors' holdings rose year on year, indicating none of them tendered. The table below therefore covers calendar 2025.

Name	Date	Type	Shares	Price	Value	Plan Type
Donal Murphy	13 Nov 2025	Award	46,625 options	EUR0.25	Nil cost	LTIP 2021, three-year ROCE, EPS and TSR conditions
Kevin Lucey	13 Nov 2025	Award	26,045 options	EUR0.25	Nil cost	LTIP 2021, three-year ROCE, EPS and TSR conditions
Conor Murphy	13 Nov 2025	Award	19,141 options	EUR0.25	Nil cost	LTIP 2021, three-year ROCE, EPS and TSR conditions
Donal Murphy	29 May 2025	Transfer	3,894	Nil	Nil	Deferred bonus 2022 allotment, nominee transfer
Kevin Lucey	29 May 2025	Transfer	1,754	Nil	Nil	Deferred bonus allotment, nominee transfer
Donal Murphy	22 May 2025	Sell	8,150	£45.41	£370,091.50	Sale to fund tax on LTIP 2009 option exercise
Donal Murphy	22 May 2025	Vest / exercise	15,441	EUR0.25	Nil cost	LTIP 2009 option exercise
Donal Murphy	22 May 2025	Award	5,355	£48.06	~£257,361	Deferred bonus, transfer out of treasury
Kevin Lucey	22 May 2025	Sell	1,850	£45.41	£84,008.50	Sale to fund tax on LTIP 2009 option exercise
Kevin Lucey	22 May 2025	Vest / exercise	3,458	EUR0.25	Nil cost	LTIP 2009 option exercise
Kevin Lucey	22 May 2025	Award	3,149	£48.06	~£151,341	Deferred bonus, transfer out of treasury

All directors holding shares have given irrevocable undertakings to accept the offer, covering 239,744 shares in aggregate, about 0.28% of issued capital, binding even against a competing bid. On the institutional side the register has turned over sharply: FMR cut its holding from 7.73% to 4.48% in early August 2026, while J.P. Morgan Chase, Societe Generale and Citadel all crossed 5% in the weeks after the firm offer, substantially through cash-settled swaps — the classic merger-arbitrage build.

10. Key Risks

• Deal completion: the scheme requires Irish High Court sanction plus merger-control clearances in the EU, UK, US, Israel, Serbia, Switzerland and Turkey, EU Foreign Subsidies Regulation notifications for both bidders, and foreign investment or national-security approvals in Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Ireland, Luxembourg, Slovakia, Sweden and the UK. None had been announced as at 22 September 2026, and the long stop date is 31 July 2027. A lapse would remove the bid premium entirely.
• Disposal execution: Nexora is unsold with no buyer, price or signed agreement disclosed, against a stated intention to reach agreement by the end of calendar 2026. Up to 125p per share of the offer — roughly £107m — requires net proceeds of at least US$800m by 31 July 2027. DCC's £278.8m loss on the Info Tech disposal, including a £228.6m impairment, is direct evidence that its technology assets have been realising below carrying value.
• Structural volume decline: group volumes fell 3.2% in FY2026 and continuing revenue 2.9%. Energy Products volumes were down 3.1% and Mobility down 3.4%. All profit growth came from margin per litre, a management lever rather than a market tailwind, and DCC's own principal risk register records commodity prices and customer demand as both increased and still increasing.
• Energy transition demand: the sharpest risk visible in the numbers. Energy Services adjusted operating profit fell 67.5% to £15.7m with margin down from 14.3% to 4.6%, DCC exited Dutch solar with a £43.2m impairment, and a £24.4m contingent-consideration credit was taken because UK Energy Services acquisitions have traded below expectations. The transition business was meant to offset declining fossil volumes.
• Weather and seasonality: DCC explicitly attributes part of the Energy Products volume decline to milder weather, particularly in France. A warm winter is a direct hit to a business selling heating fuel.
• Working capital reversal: the £71.4m working capital inflow and the £23.2m absolute working capital position both depend on elevated commodity prices. DCC states that if prices normalised the benefit would reverse, which would be a real cash outflow.
• Acquisition integration and new-market process safety: restructuring and integration costs more than doubled to £45.7m. Three of the four recent acquisitions came from a single counterparty into four countries where DCC had never operated, and the annual report names entry into new markets and the scaling of liquefied gas activities as elevating process safety and environmental risk. Lost-time injury frequency rose to 1.00 per 200,000 hours from 0.90.
• Currency and geography: roughly 90% of continuing revenue is earned outside the UK domestic market. Foreign exchange was a 0.8% tailwind at group level in FY2026 but a 4.9% headwind within DCC Technology, and the equity base is materially thinner after the £700m return, with total equity down from £3,168.3m to £2,363.6m.

11. Recent Developments

• 18 Sep 2026 — Scheme approved by shareholders. At the court-ordered scheme meeting, 43,920,116 shares voted in favour, representing 78.09% of shares voted and 51.41% of all scheme shares, against 12,321,123 opposed; turnout was 65.84% and the 75% value threshold was met. All five EGM resolutions passed with 77.33% to 77.47% in favour. Completion is still expected in Q1 2027.
• 02 Sep 2026 — No-increase statement under Rule 32.2. Dragon Bidco confirmed the consideration is final and will not be increased, closing off any prospect of a raised bid.
• 24 Aug 2026 — Scheme document published and posted to shareholders, alongside a separate announcement of Rule 15 proposals to holders of outstanding share plan awards and options.
• 21 Aug 2026 — Scheme meeting convened. The High Court of Ireland ordered on 20 August 2026 that the scheme meeting be held at 2.00pm on 18 September 2026.
• 27 Jul 2026 — Rule 2.7 firm offer announced. Recommended cash acquisition of DCC Energy plc by Dragon Bidco Limited, owned by funds advised by Energy Capital Partners and KKR, at up to 6,797.22p per share: 6,525.00p base cash, the 147.22p permitted final dividend, and up to 125.00p contingent on the Nexora disposal. Base plus dividend values the company at approximately £5.75bn, a 24% premium to the undisturbed close of 5,380p on 28 April 2026 and 36% above the twelve-month volume-weighted average.
• 23 Jul 2026 — FY2026 final dividend of 147.22p paid, expressly carved out in the offer terms as a permitted dividend with no reduction in the cash consideration.
• 17 Jul 2026 — Change of name to DCC Energy plc registered at the Irish Companies Registration Office, trading under the new name from 20 July 2026, with TIDM, ISIN and SEDOL unchanged.
• 16 Jul 2026 — AGM, trading statement and an improved proposal. First-quarter FY2027 continuing group operating profit was in line with expectations and ahead of the prior year, with both divisions ahead. The UGI Central and Eastern European acquisition was confirmed as completed in late May 2026, ahead of schedule. The bidders added up to 125p of Nexora-contingent consideration to the unchanged 6,525p base. All AGM resolutions passed, including the special resolution authorising the name change.
• 10 Jun 2026 — Revised proposal and board support. The bidders raised their proposal to 6,672.22p per share, about 15% above the first approach, and the board stated it was minded to recommend.
• 19 May 2026 — FY2026 preliminary results. Continuing revenue £15,442m, down 2.9%; adjusted operating profit £634.0m, up 3.6%; continuing adjusted EPS 438.1p, up 9.9%; return on capital employed 16.8%; free cash flow £689.6m at 108% conversion; net debt excluding leases £690.5m; final dividend up 5.0% to 147.22p. The name change to DCC Energy plc was proposed.
• 30 Apr 2026 — First approach rejected. DCC disclosed that the initial proposal was 5,800p in cash and that the board had unanimously and unequivocally rejected it on 29 April as fundamentally undervaluing the company.
• 29 Apr 2026 — Statement re possible offer. DCC confirmed receipt of an indicative cash proposal from Energy Capital Partners and KKR, with an undisturbed date of 28 April 2026.
• 15 Jan 2026 — Four new markets via liquid gas acquisition. Agreement to buy UGI International's businesses in Poland, Hungary, Czechia and Slovakia for approximately EUR48m enterprise value, covering more than 200 million litres and around 30,000 customers, targeted at mid-teens return on capital by year two.

For the macro and commodity backdrop against which these results land, see the ChartsView Economic Calendar.

12. Key Dates to Watch

• 10 Nov 2026 — interim results for the six months to 30 September 2026, published on the company financial calendar and confirmed in the July AGM statement. Note that any FY2027 interim dividend declared on this date would, on the published offer terms, be deductible from the 6,525p base consideration, since no permitted-dividend carve-out was disclosed for it
• 27 Nov 2026 — Goodbody Equity Conference, London, the only other investor event on the published calendar
• 31 Dec 2026 — DCC's stated intention to have reached agreement on the sale of Nexora, the outcome that determines whether the 125p contingent consideration is payable
• Expected Q1 2027 — Irish High Court sanction hearing for the scheme of arrangement. The last day of dealings in DCC Energy shares is expected one business day after sanction, the scheme effective date two business days after, and cancellation of the listing three business days after. No exact dates have been published
• Expected Q1 2027 — settlement of the 6,525p base consideration, due within 14 days of the scheme effective date
• 31 Jul 2027 — long stop date for the scheme, and also the Technology Disposal Long Stop Date beyond which the 125p contingent element falls away. Extendable only by agreement with the Irish Takeover Panel and, where required, High Court consent
• Expected Autumn 2027 — anticipated receipt of the unconditional deferred Healthcare consideration and the residual £100m capital return, contingent on the company still being listed at that point
• TBC — ex-dividend and payment dates for any FY2027 interim dividend; none has been declared or dated. Historically the interim has been paid in December and the final in July

No 2027 AGM date and no capital markets day had been published as at 22 September 2026, and on the expected timetable the scheme would complete before an AGM would fall due. Discuss this research with other investors in the ChartsView Forum.

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