GIC agrees to buy 25% stake in EQT-backed waste company Reworld

The waste solutions provider serves municipal, residential, commercial and industrial customers in North America

SINGAPORE’S sovereign wealth fund GIC has agreed to acquire a 25 per cent stake in waste management company Reworld.

The wealth fund is buying the holding from Reworld’s owner, investment company EQT, indicated a statement released on Wednesday (Oct 2).

Financial terms were not disclosed. Bloomberg News reported in May that a deal could value Morristown, New Jersey-based Reworld at more than US$8 billion, including debt.

Reworld – led by chief executive officer Azeez Mohammed – has more than 100 facilities, its website showed. It serves municipal, residential, commercial and industrial customers in North America.

EQT acquired the firm in 2021 for US$5.3 billion, including the assumption of the company’s net debt.

“We’ve been able to grow earnings by 50 per cent since we acquired the business by increasing volumes, by running operations more efficiently, and pivoting toward industrial-profile waste, which is more profitable than municipal solid waste,” said EQT partner JD Vargas.

BT in your inbox

Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox.

Customers have increasingly sought to divert their waste from landfills to more sustainable alternatives such as Reworld, Vargas added.

He noted that the waste solutions company has also grown through acquisitions, having bought eight companies since the investment company took control.

It holds Reworld in its EQT Infrastructure V fund. In late September, the company’s infrastructure funds agreed to sell a minority stake in data centre provider EdgeConneX to investment firm Sixth Street.

Citigroup and Houlihan Lokey are serving as financial advisers to EQT Infrastructure, while Goldman Sachs is the exclusive financial adviser to GIC. BLOOMBERG