Ballymount waste operator Panda is in line for takeover
By Maurice Garvey
BALLYMOUNT company Beauparc Utilities, the owner of waste operator Panda, is in line for a €1bn takeover after its minority shareholder, Blackstone, set about putting its stake on the market late last year.
The move has attracted takeover approaches from dozens of private equity firms and may result in an outright purchase of Beauparc, according to industry sources.
Brian Bolger, fleet commercial director at Panda; Minister for the Environment, Climate and Communications and Minister for Transport, Eamon Ryan and Des Crinion, Managing Director Recycling, Beauparc
New York investment giant Blackstone acquired a 37.6 per cent stake in Beauparc two years ago for an undisclosed sum.
The remainder of the company is almost entirely in the hands of its founder, Eamon Waters.
Wall Street investment bank JP Morgan, originally hired to work on finding a buyer for the Blackstone stake, is understood to have fielded up to 30 expressions of interest from US, UK and European private equity and infrastructure firms for the entire business.
It is expected that a deadline will be set next month for pitches, with a deal possible in the second quarter of the year, according to industry sources.
In December, Ballymount waste operator Panda unveiled Ireland’s first electric refuse truck amid plans for a first ‘bottle to bottle’ plastic recycling facility.
Newly installed solar panels powering the nation’s largest household recycling facility in Ballymount will also charge the electric vehicle, making the entire process of collecting and recycling waste completely carbon-free.
The vehicles are also significantly quieter while operating in residential areas and Panda are on track to have the urban fleet fully electric by 2024.
Alongside this, Panda is investing €20m into a dedicated bottle to bottle plastic recycling facility in Portlaoise which will create up to 100 new jobs.
Mr Waters set up Panda in 1990 on land adjoining his family’s filling station business in Beauparc, near Slane, Co Meath.
It acquired Greenstar in 2016 and it expanded the same year into the UK market through acquisition.
In 2018, it purchased Dutch waste and recycling business Renes.
Beauparc employs more than 3,200 people across 51 sites in Ireland, Britain and the Netherlands, processing four million tonnes of waste every year, according to its website.
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