Southern Counties’ Buy

ORANGE —  Petroleum products distributor Southern Counties Oil Co. said Tuesday it has agreed to purchase the gasoline and diesel fuels wholesaling division of San Diego-based PS Group Holdings Inc.

PS Group, which owned Pacific Southwest Airlines before selling it to USAir Group in 1997, said its PS Trading Inc. subsidiary will receive about $8 million cash from the deal. But not all of the money will come from Southern Counties, which is based in Orange.

The cash will be generated, in part, by sale of the Sacramento-based PS Trading wholesale unit’s fuel inventories. PS Trading also will retain rights to collect payments from some of its accounts, a spokesman said.

The company is selling the gasoline and diesel fuel unit because it does not mesh with other fuel distribution activities that are focused in the aviation market.

A spokesman for Southern Counties said the deal should close sometime next month. Most of the PS Trading unit’s 18 employees are in Sacramento. No decisions have been made yet on employee retention, the companies said.