Largest Waste Firm Nears Deal For Rival -- WSJ

By Dana Mattioli and Cara Lombardo 

This article is being republished as part of our daily reproduction of WSJ.com articles that also appeared in the U.S. print edition of The Wall Street Journal (April 15, 2019).

Waste Management Inc. is nearing a roughly $2.9 billion deal to buy its smaller rival Advanced Disposal Services Inc., according to people familiar with the matter, in what would be the biggest acquisition in its history.

Waste Management would pay $33.15 a share in cash for Advanced Disposal, the people said. The deal, which could be announced Monday, represents a 22.1% premium to Advanced Disposal's trading price at Friday's close and will rank as one of the biggest solid-waste company acquisitions in more than a decade. Including debt, the deal would be worth nearly $5 billion.

A deal would bring together the No. 1 and No. 4 companies in the sector.

Advanced Disposal, based in Ponte Vedra, Fla., is a waste and recycling collector serving roughly 2.8 million residential customers and 200,000 commercial customers in around 16 states and the Bahamas. It also owns or operates around 60 landfills and recycling centers. The company went public in 2016 and is part-owned by the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, which, according to one of the people, has agreed to vote for the deal. CPPIB owns around 19% of the company, according to Refinitiv.

There is no guarantee the talks won't fall apart at the last minute.

Houston-based Waste Management is the largest solid-waste company in the U.S., with a market value of more than $40 billion. It owns or operates roughly 250 landfills, the largest network in the country.

The deal would broaden Waste Management's geographic footprint, adding attractive regions in the waste collection and landfill segments in states like Minnesota, Illinois, Wisconsin and Indiana.

Waste Management last year spent more than $450 million on acquisitions and Chief Executive James Fish said on a recent earnings call that it planned to continue spending on deals in 2019. The Advanced Disposal purchase is expected to yield more than $100 million in annual synergies, one of the people said.

Last month, a Waste Management subsidiary announced the acquisition of Petro Waste Environmental, which provides environmental services and solid-waste disposal to the oil-and-gas industry.

Write to Dana Mattioli at [e-mail] and Cara Lombardo at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

April 15, 2019 02:47 ET (06:47 GMT)

Copyright (c) 2019 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.