London: Reports that private venture capitalist Terra Firma and French utility company Suez - parent of Sita UK - were working on a rival bid for Biffa, have come to nothing as the consortium appears to have withdrawn from the field.
Biffa confirmed this morning that ‘third parties’ were “no longer working towards making a competing offer”.
On the 8 February Biffa recommended acceptance of a bid of 350p per share - valuing the company at £1.2 billion - from Wasteacquisitionco, a consortium of Montagu, Global Infrastructure Partners Funds and Uberior Co-Investments Limited (UCIL) - the consortium being led by Montagu Private Equity and GIP.
No competing offer for Biffa (Photo: Biffa)
Montagu’s initial offer of £3.30 – made last year – was rejected by the Biffa board. At that time Montagu was in consortium with Hg Pooled Management, though later GIP stepped into the breach when Hg withdrew.
Montagu were also involved in the sale of Cory Environmental in March 2007, to a consortium of long term infrastructure investors consisting of ABN AMRO Global Infrastructure Fund, Finpro SGPS and Santander Private Equity, on behalf of Santander Infrastructure Funds I and II.
Biffa repeated its recommendation of the WasteAcquisitionco’s bid today– shareholders will get the opportunity to vote on 12 March at an extraordinary general meeting.