Biffa

Last updated
Biffa plc
Biffa
Type Public limited company
LSE:  BIFF
FTSE 250 Component
ISIN GB00BD8DR117
Industry Waste management
Founded1912;111 years ago (1912) in Wembley, London, England
FounderRichard Henry Biffa
Headquarters High Wycombe,
England
Area served
United Kingdom
Key people
RevenueDecrease2.svg £1,042.0 million (2021) [1]
Decrease2.svg £44.2 million (2021) [1]
Decrease2.svg £(40.5) million (2021) [1]
Number of employees
8,238 (2021) [1]
Website www.biffa.co.uk

Biffa plc is a waste management company headquartered in High Wycombe, England. It provides collection, landfill, recycling and special waste services to local authorities and industrial and commercial clients in the United Kingdom. As of 2017, it was the UK's second-largest waste-management company. [2]

Contents

It was listed on the London Stock Exchange until it was acquired by the private-equity firm, Energy Capital Partners, in January 2023. [3]

History

The company, which was originally engaged in the removal and sale of ashes and clinker from London power stations, was founded in Wembley by Richard Henry Biffa as Richard Biffa Limited, in 1912. [4]

In 1958 Richard Henry Biffa's grandson, Richard Charles Biffa, joined the business and, after becoming general manager in 1963, grew the business organically and by acquisition. [4] The business was acquired by British Electric Traction in 1971 and by Severn Trent for £212 million in 1991. [4] It acquired the American-owned UK Waste for £380 million in 2000. [5]

Severn Trent demerged the company to a consortium formed by Global Infrastructure Partners, Montagu Private Equity and Uberior Co-Investment in 2008. [4] It acquired recycling firm Greenstar UK for £135 million in 2010. [6]

The company was re-listed on the London Stock Exchange on 17 October 2016. [7]

In June 2022, Biffa received a buyout proposal from private-equity firm, Energy Capital Partners, at £4.45 a share, a 37% premium to the share price, valuing the company at £1.36 billion. [8] [9] The proposal was approved by the court, allowing it to proceed, on 25 January 2023. [10]

Operations

A Biffa Dennis Eagle garbage truck in Plymouth in March 2010 Biffa VE59FVU.jpg
A Biffa Dennis Eagle garbage truck in Plymouth in March 2010

Biffa cover 95% of the UK. The company runs two Material Recycling Facilities (MRF). [11]

Prosecutions for illegal activities

Biffa has been prosecuted for the following breaches of environmental waste export laws:

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Doughty Hanson & Co</span>

Doughty Hanson & Co is a British private equity fund manager focused on leveraged buyout and recapitalization transactions primarily of upper middle-market companies in Europe. The firm also invests opportunistically in European real estate and provides early-stage venture capital to technology companies.

The Carlyle Group is a multinational private equity, alternative asset management and financial services corporation based in the United States with $376 billion of assets under management. It specializes in private equity, real assets, and private credit. It is one of the largest mega-funds in the world. In 2015, Carlyle was the world's largest private equity firm by capital raised over the previous five years, according to the PEI 300 index. In the 2023 ranking however, it had slipped to fifth place.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kohlberg Kravis Roberts</span> American investment manager

KKR & Co. Inc., also known as Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co., is an American global investment company that manages multiple alternative asset classes, including private equity, energy, infrastructure, real estate, credit, and, through its strategic partners, hedge funds. As of December 31, 2022, the firm had completed more than 690 private equity investments in portfolio companies with approximately $700 billion of total enterprise value. As of December 31, 2022, assets under management (AUM) and fee paying assets under management (FPAUM) were $504 billion and $412 billion, respectively.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Severn Trent</span> English water company

Severn Trent plc is a water company based in Coventry, England. It supplies 4.6 million households and business across the Midlands and Wales.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Blackstone Inc.</span> American alternative investment company

Blackstone Inc. is an American alternative investment management company based in New York City. Blackstone's private equity business has been one of the largest investors in leveraged buyouts in the last three decades, while its real estate business has actively acquired commercial real estate. Blackstone is also active in credit, infrastructure, hedge funds, insurance, secondaries, and growth equity. As of June 2023, the company's total assets under management were approximately US$1 trillion, making it the largest alternative investment firm globally.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">TPG Inc.</span> American investment company

TPG Inc., previously known as Texas Pacific Group and TPG Capital, is an American private equity firm based in Fort Worth, Texas. The firm is focused on leveraged buyouts and growth capital. TPG manages investment funds in growth capital, venture capital, public equity, and debt investments. The firm invests in a range of industries including consumer/retail, media and telecommunications, industrials, technology, travel, leisure, and health care.

Bain Capital is an American private investment firm based in Boston. It specializes in private equity, venture capital, credit, public equity, impact investing, life sciences, crypto, tech opportunities, partnership opportunities, special situations, and real estate. Bain Capital invests across a range of industry sectors and geographic regions. As of 2022, the firm managed approximately $165 billion of investor capital. The firm was founded in 1984 by partners from the consulting firm Bain & Company. The company is headquartered at 200 Clarendon Street in Boston with 22 offices in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Apax Partners</span> British private equity firm

Apax Partners LLP is a British private equity firm, headquartered in London, England. The company also operates out of six other offices in New York, Hong Kong, Mumbai, Tel Aviv, Munich and Shanghai. As of December 2017, the firm, including its various predecessors, have raised approximately $65 billion (USD) since 1981. Apax Partners is one of the oldest and largest private equity firms operating on an international basis, ranked the fifteenth largest private equity firm globally.

Bridgepoint Group plc is a British private investment company listed on the London Stock Exchange and is a constituent of the FTSE 250 Index.

Cinven is a global private equity firm founded in 1977, with offices in nine international locations in Guernsey, London, New York, Paris, Frankfurt, Milan, Luxembourg, Madrid, and Hong Kong that acquires Europe and United States based corporations, and emerging market firms that fit with their core businesses, and necessitate a minimum equity investment of €100 million or more. As of 2023, it has €39 billion in assets under management.

Terra Firma Capital Partners Ltd. (TFCP) is a UK-based private equity firm. Financier Guy Hands founded the firm in 2002 through the spin-off of Nomura Principal Finance Group. The firm, which traces its roots to the formation of its predecessor in 1994, has invested over €14 billion since inception.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">CVC Capital Partners</span> British private equity and investment advisory firm

CVC Capital Partners is a Luxembourg-based private equity and investment advisory firm with approximately US$155 billion of assets under management and approximately €157 billion in secured commitments since inception across American, European and Asian private equity, secondaries and credit funds. As of 31 December 2021, the funds managed or advised by CVC are invested in more than 100 companies worldwide, employing over 450,000 people in numerous countries. CVC was founded in 1981 and, as of 31 March 2022, has over 650 employees working across its network of 25 offices throughout EMEA, Asia and the Americas.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">APriori Capital Partners</span> American private equity investment

aPriori Capital Partners is a private equity investment firm focused on leveraged buyout transactions. The firm was founded as an affiliate of Credit Suisse and traces its roots to Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, the investment bank acquired by Credit Suisse First Boston in 2000. The private equity arm also manages a group of investment vehicles including Real Estate Private Equity, International Private Equity, Growth capital, Mezzanine debt, Infrastructure, Energy and Commodities Focused, fund of funds, and Secondary Investments.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Canaccord Genuity</span> Canadian financial company

Canaccord Genuity Group Inc. is a global, full-service investment banking and financial services company that specializes in wealth management and brokerage in capital markets. It is the largest independent investment dealer in Canada. The firm focuses on growth companies, with operations in 10 countries worldwide and the ability to list companies on 10 stock exchanges. Canaccord Genuity, the international capital markets division, is based in Canada, with offices in the US, the UK, France, Germany, Ireland, Hong Kong, China, Singapore, Dubai, Australia, and Barbados.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">BC Partners</span> Private equity firm

BC Partners is a British international investment firm with over $40 billion of assets under management across private equity, credit and real estate in Europe and North America. Its global headquarters are in London. The firm invests across all industries. BC Partners was founded in 1986 and has offices in New York, Paris and Hamburg. Since inception, BC Partners has completed 113 private equity investments in companies with a total enterprise value of €145 billion.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amey plc</span> United Kingdom-based infrastructure support service provider

Amey plc, previously known as Amey Ltd and Amey Roadstone Construction, is a United Kingdom-based infrastructure support service provider.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Thoma Bravo</span> American private equity firm

Thoma Bravo, LP, is an American private equity and growth capital firm based in Chicago. It is known for being particularly active in acquiring enterprise software companies and has over $130 billion in assets under management as of 2023. The size and software-focus of Thoma Bravo has led it to be referred to as one of the "Big 3" technology private equity firms along with Silver Lake and Vista Equity Partners.

Charterhouse Capital Partners is a London based private equity investment firm focused on investing in European mid-market companies valued between €200m and €1.5bn. The company targets investments across the services, healthcare, specialised industrials and consumer sectors.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hg (equity firm)</span> British private equity firm

Hg is a private equity firm targeting technology buyouts primarily in Europe and the US. Hg focuses on investments in technology and services sectors. It invests out of its 8th £2.5 billion core fund and its 2nd £575 million Mercury fund, targeting smaller technology buyouts, both raised in February 2017. Both funds were closed on their hard-caps and were more than 3x oversubscribed versus their targets, receiving strong re-ups from existing investors. The company raised its 1st time £1.5B Saturn large-cap fund in March 2018 and in 2020 raised $11B across three funds, Mercury 3, Genesis 9 and Saturn 2.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Energy Capital Partners</span> American energy investment firm

Energy Capital Partners (ECP) is an American investment firm headquartered in Summit, New Jersey. It focuses on investments in the energy sector. The firm has additional offices in New York City, Houston, San Diego, Fort Lauderdale and Seoul.

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 "Annual Report 2021". Biffa. Retrieved 16 February 2022.
  2. Flanagan, Martin (23 September 2017). "Business Interview: Biffa chief Ian Wakelin". The Scotsman . Retrieved 25 September 2017.
  3. "Energy Capital Partners (ECP) Completes Acquisition of Biffa". PR Newswire. 27 January 2023. Retrieved 10 July 2023.
  4. 1 2 3 4 "Biffa looking forward after 100 years". Let's Recycle. 24 December 2012. Retrieved 6 March 2020.
  5. "Severn Trent to buy UK Waste". Citywire. 5 June 2000. Retrieved 6 March 2020.
  6. "Biffa owners acquire Greenstar for £135m". Environment Analyst. 10 June 2010. Retrieved 6 March 2020.
  7. Bury, Rhiannon (14 June 2017). "Biffa profits hit by costs of London float". The Daily Telegraph . Retrieved 18 September 2017.
  8. Alabi, Leke Oso (7 June 2022). "UK waste manager Biffa receives takeover bid". Financial Times . Retrieved 8 June 2022.
  9. Karimi, Amna (7 June 2022). "Waste-management specialist Biffa soars on $1.7 billion buyout proposal". Reuters . Retrieved 8 June 2022.
  10. "Biffa says GBP1.3 billion takeover crosses final hurdle". Morning Star. 25 January 2023. Retrieved 27 January 2023.
  11. "How a fifth of all recycling sent to one north London plant is just burnt, fuelling the capital's dirty air crisis". Hackney Gazette. 24 October 2019. Retrieved 14 January 2021.
  12. "Waste firm fined £1.5m for illegal exports of rubbish". ITV News . 30 July 2021.
  13. "UK waste firm Biffa loses appeal after exporting dirty waste to China". The Guardian . 3 July 2020.
  14. "UK waste firm fined £1.5m for exporting household waste". The Guardian. 30 July 2021.