"The acquisition has an excellent geographic and business fit with Viridor’s existing operations and is expected to be earnings enhancing before amortisation of intangibles in its first full year"
Colin Drummond, Chief Executive of Viridor
Exeter, Devon, UK: Pennon Group Plc announced recently that its subsidiary Viridor Waste Management, has acquired Grosvenor Waste Management, a leading UK materials recycling company, for a cash consideration of £79.5m plus debt of £1.5m.
Pennon says that the acquisition is in line with the Group’s strategy of expanding its waste management activities.
Grosvenor operates the Crayford MRF (materials recycling facility) which is the largest in the UK and one of the most technologically advanced. It also operates a MRF on behalf of Peterborough City Council and has industrial and commercial collection activities complementary to its recycling facilities. The company also has an extensive recyclate sales network both in the UK and overseas.
Grosvenor has invested over £5.4 million in new facilities and management processes since 2004, including a new autosort plastic and can facility which was installed in summer 2006 at a cost of £1.5 million and more recently an additional 80,000 tonnes per year material recycling line. The company employs over 250 people.
Advanced plastic bottle sorting equipment at Crayford MRF (Picture Titech / Grosvenor)
Grosvenor handles approximately 500,000 tonnes of material per annum, of which around 80 percent is attributable to the Crayford MRF.
Viridor says that it has complimentary recycling, collection and disposal assets in the operating areas of Grosvenor Waste Management.
Viridor Resource Management
The Crayford, Peterborough and collection operations will be integrated into Viridor Waste’s south eastern region and a new entity, Viridor Resource Management Ltd, will oversee all recyclate marketing, according to Viridor. It is understood that John Viviani, Grosvenor’s Managing Director, has been retained to lead Viridor Resource Management.
Viridor “expects the acquisition to be earnings enhancing before amortisation of intangibles in the first full year”.
Viridor is involved in major waste management developments throughout the UK including at Dunbar, Scotland where a combined heat and power facility is proposed, together with a further CHP plant on the cards at Exeter in Devon - Pennon's head office location. In Greater Manchester, the company is expected to finalise the largest waste PFI contract in Europe by the end of March 2008, though there have been several delays in this process.
Viridor recently won the ‘Best Partnership with Local Authorities’ category in the DEFRA-sponsored Awards for Excellence in Waste and Recycling. It is also a ‘beacon status company’ for it’s partnership working with waste and recycling services beacon councils (the Beacon scheme recognises excellence and innovation in local government), and has won the Chartered Institution for Wastes Management Peel Prize Cup for the UK’s best-run landfill three times in recent years.
Commenting on the acquisition, Colin Drummond, Chief Executive of Viridor said,
“The UK’s waste strategy demands ever increasing levels of recycling. Grosvenor has an excellent track record in leading the way in the recycling market and is well placed to capitalise on this opportunity. The acquisition has an excellent geographic and business fit with Viridor’s existing operations and is expected to be earnings enhancing before amortisation of intangibles in its first full year.”
Further information
Web sites
www.viridor-waste.co.uk
www.pennon-group.co.uk
www.grosvenorwaste.co.uk/