Potential purchasers of waste management companies, like buyers in other industries, need to fully understand the target’s assets prior to making a bid. A detailed due diligence evaluation, available to buyers early in the sale process, will save buyers time and expense. It may also help the seller generate greater interest in the transaction than might otherwise have existed.
The vendor of a New Zealand-based waste management company engaged Golder to perform a technical due diligence evaluation. The portfolio of assets contained more than 40 facilities, including owned and leased landfills, owned and leased transfer stations, hauling fleet, and chemical waste processing facilities.
Golder was engaged to provide an independent overview of the technical components, writing summaries of the information reviewed for each asset, and providing opinion regarding the asset’s fitness for purpose.
Over a three-month period, we sorted, catalogued and reviewed thousands of digital files of the seller’s records, considering the long and often complex histories of many of the sites. We prepared 25 narrative reports, issued electronically, to accurately convey the relevant information in a format that prospective buyers and their consultants would understand. Reports and collated data were made accessible via a ‘data room’ hosted by the seller’s agent.
The assignment also included reviewing financial models that projected future capital and operating expenses on a facility-by-facility basis to ensure consistency with the various technical plans for the facilities. Our project team of solid waste specialists from Australia, New Zealand and the USA reviewed a range of information pertaining to each facility, covering consents, designs, operations plans, capacities and constraints, and historical and projected capital and operating expenses. A specialty transportation sub-consultant assessed the hauling fleet.
Our broad-based expertise in the solid waste business was a key factor in the success of this project. Our insights enabled us to provide an expert due diligence for the asset owner, which supported potential buyers to make informed, confident decisions. The sale was successfully completed in early 2013 for approximately NZ$500 million to a large, diversified infrastructure investment company.
