PORTSMOUTH, N.H., Dec. 17, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Wheelabrator Technologies Inc. ("Wheelabrator Technologies") announced today that it has entered into an agreement to sell WTI / EFW Holdings ("Wheelabrator U.K.") to the European Diversified Infrastructure Fund III SCSp ("EDIF III"), an infrastructure fund managed by First Sentier Investors ("FSI"). The transaction is expected to complete in early 2021.
Wheelabrator U.K. is the largest pure play waste-to-energy business in the U.K. and is a developer, owner and operator of strategically located waste-to-energy facilities, with seven waste-to-energy facilities in operation and advanced development. Wheelabrator U.K. is an integral part of the U.K.'s environmental infrastructure, diverting waste from landfills or export to continental Europe to provide residents and businesses with local, sustainable disposal of non-recyclable solid waste while creating renewable energy.
Wheelabrator Technologies was acquired by Macquarie Infrastructure Partners IV ("MIP") in February 2019. MIP operates within the Macquarie Infrastructure and Real Assets division of Macquarie Group, the world's largest infrastructure manager.
In the past 12 months, Wheelabrator U.K. reached commercial operations at Wheelabrator Kemsley, a combined heat and power facility that provides steam to the DS Smith paper mill located in Sittingbourne, Kent and reached commercial operations at two new waste-to-energy facilities in North Wales and West Yorkshire, Wheelabrator Parc Adfer and Multifuel Energy Limited Ferrybridge 2. The business continues to progress the advanced development of three further waste-to-energy facilities, Multifuel Energy Limited Skelton Grange in Yorkshire, Wheelabrator Kelvin in West Bromwich and Wheelabrator Kemsley North in Sittingbourne.
Robert Boucher, President & CEO of Wheelabrator Technologies, said, "I am incredibly proud of the U.K. team and what we have achieved as One Team to grow the Wheelabrator U.K. business over the last 11 years. I look forward to the business continuing to execute on their strategy for continued development of critical waste infrastructure in the U.K. with their new shareholder and partner. The buildout of the largest, pure play waste-to-energy business in the U.K. is the result of many years of commitment, hard work, and strong partnerships with our customers and partners, and our ability to leverage our operational excellence from the U.S. and embed it into the U.K."
Julia Watsford, Managing Director of Wheelabrator U.K., said, "Today's announcement marks another major milestone in the growth of our U.K. business. We remain fully committed to providing our essential waste disposal service to our customers and communities, while ensuring the safety of our people, contractors and communities remains our number one priority. We're excited to work with our new partners at FSI to continue to deliver the critical infrastructure required to support the safe and reliable treatment of non-recyclable waste, both now and in the future. I'd like to thank all of our team members for their continued hard work and commitment to Make A Difference to make this business and this transaction a success."
Karl Kuchel, CEO of MIP, said, "The Wheelabrator team has successfully developed a high-quality portfolio of waste-to-energy facilities in the U.K. over the past decade. We have enjoyed the opportunity to support the company over the last two years as the team has completed construction and successfully commissioned three new U.K. facilities and advanced some promising new projects, despite challenges associated with COVID-19. We have full confidence in the continued success of the platform as the Wheelabrator U.K. business enters its next phase of growth under new ownership."
Niall Mills, Managing Partner at FSI, said, "We are delighted to make this investment in Wheelabrator U.K. Following our recent agreement to acquire SSE's stake in the Multifuel Energy Joint Venture, we are looking forward to combining the businesses to create the U.K.'s pre-eminent waste-to-energy platform. We are proud to support Wheelabrator U.K.'s role in facilitating the energy transition while diverting residual waste from landfill. We look forward to working with the team to grow the business and capitalize on the opportunities we see in the sector."
Credit Suisse and J.P. Morgan served as financial advisors to Wheelabrator U.K. on the sale and Linklaters served as legal counsel. Jefferies and Macquarie Capital served as financial advisors to FSI and Latham & Watkins served as lead legal counsel.
Notes to editor:
About Wheelabrator Technologies
Wheelabrator Technologies is a waste management company committed to delivering essential waste management solutions to customers and communities supported by our team of 1,800 employees. We believe in preserving our environment for future generations while providing for today's needs. Wheelabrator is a vertically integrated business with a platform of 50 strategically located collection, transfer and disposal assets. These include waste-to-energy facilities, transfer stations, ash monofills, landfills, and fleets of rail cars and collection vehicles. We process more than 13 million tons of waste annually, convert 9 million tons of waste into clean, renewable energy that powers 685,000 homes and recycle more than 390K tons of plastic, paper and metals from the waste stream. For more on Wheelabrator, please visit www.wtienergy.com.
About Wheelabrator Technologies U.K.
Wheelabrator U.K. is the fourth largest U.K. waste-to-energy business and currently has an annual waste processing capacity of over 2.3M tonnes (2.5M tons), and a total combined electric generating capacity of 247MW (gross)-enough energy to power more than 500,000 U.K. homes. For more on Wheelabrator U.K., please visit www.wtienergy.co.uk.
About First Sentier Investors
First Sentier Investors are stewards of over €130 billion in assets managed on behalf of a client base that extends across Asia, Australasia, Europe and North America. With more than twenty years' experience in infrastructure investment, it is one of the longest established managers of infrastructure assets on behalf of institutional investors and currently manages approximately €10.0 billion of equity invested across assets in the utility, transport and energy infrastructure sectors in Europe, Australia and North America. The transaction represents an important cornerstone investment of FSI-managed European Diversified Infrastructure Fund III, a European domiciled, euro-denominated fund. FSI operates as a standalone business owned and overseen by the Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking Corporation, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group, Inc.
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