News: ALD UPDATE 1-Ampol to sell 49% stake in convenience stores property trust for $489.40 million

(Adds details on deal, background)

Aug 17 (Reuters) - Australia's Ampol Ltd (ALD) said on Monday it would sell a 49% stake in a property trust that owns convenience stores to Singaporean sovereign wealth fund GIC

and Charter Hall Group (CHC) for A$682 million ($489.81 million).

The sale comes months after a A$8.8 billion takeover of Ampol - formerly known as Caltex Australia - by Canada's Alimentation Couche-Tard ATDb.TO was shelved as a result of the financial blow and plummeting fuel margins caused by the coronavirus crisis.

The country's biggest fuel supplier said the minority stake was in a newly created property trust which would own 203 convenience retail sites throughout Australia. The deal values the entire property trust at A$1.4 billion.

Property firm Charter Hall said in a separate release it will own a 2.45% stake in the Ampol portfolio.

Ampol said it would will retain a 51% stake while maintaining strategic and operational control of the convenience retail sites.

The property trust would receive A$77 million in rental payments from Ampol in the first year, Ampol added, saying it planned to use the net proceeds of A$612 million from the deal to reduce its debt amid uncertainty around COVID-19.

($1 = 1.3924 Australian dollars)