As reported by the U.S.-based Waste Business Journal (www.wastebusinessjournal.com), Waste Connections, Inc. of The Woodlands, Texas is interested in buying Milwaukee, Wisconsin-based Veolia ES Solid Waste Inc., which was put up for sale in November 2011 by its French corporate parent Veolia Environnement.
Waste Connections could pull off a deal depending on how it is structured, according to CEO Ron Mittelstaedt.
"We could do up to a couple billion dollars right now, no problem, with our existing credit capacity," Mittelstaedt told Waste & Recycling News on December 28, 2011. "There are certainly large pieces of it that are very attractive to us. There are some that are not as consistent with our business model, so it depends on if they sell the whole thing. Do they sell it in geographic regions? What do they do?"
Waste Connections has so far followed a strategy that eschews more competitive urban markets in favour of more rural markets, particularly those that employ franchise agreements for waste services.
Veolia's U.S. waste business had revenues of 614 million Euros ($822 million) in 2010. Analysts believe the business could fetch between $1.5 billion to $1.9 billion.
Veolia entered the U.S. waste business in June 1999 when its predecessor company Vivendi S.A. bought Superior Services Inc., then the fourth largest U.S. waste company, for about $1 billion.
Vivendi later split its entertainment business away from its environmental services business, which it named Veolia.