Today, Pennon Group's subsidiary Viridor announced its acquisition of Thames Waste Management for a cash consideration of 30.5 million from Germany's RWE Umwelt. The purchase will be integrated into Viridor's southern division and covers landfill, landfill gas power facilities and liquid waste.
For the year ended December 31 2003, Leatherhead-based Thames Waste made a profit before tax of 4.3 million and had net assets at that date of 12.5 million.
”This acquisition fits very well with Viridor Waste's strategy“
– Colin Drummond, Chief executive of Viridor Waste
Included in the deal is Thames Waste's 4 million cubic metres of consented landfill capacity based inside the M25 at Beddington near Croydon. This takes Viridor's total landfill capacity up to around 83 million cubic metres.
Two landfill gas power generation schemes totalling 5 megawatt capacity are also included in the deal. Viridor now owns 45MW of landfill gas capacity, equivalent to 10% of the UK's total landfill power capacity.
Chief executive of Viridor Waste Colin Drummond said: “This acquisition fits very well with Viridor Waste's strategy of expanding its landfill, power generation and waste treatment activities.”
In addition to the landfill and landfill gas plants, Viridor now owns Thames Waste's four liquid waste treatment plants along with an associated tanker fleet and will benefit from an ongoing contract with Thames Water Services for the disposal of sewage.
There has been speculation that Thames Waste would be sold ever since it failed to win the East London Waste Authority disposal and recycling contract, which eventually went to Shanks Group. Viridor was also reported to be looking into an acquisition of part of Shanks but its interest in this seems to have gone cold.
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