LONDON, Aug 8 (Reuters) – A consortium including Chinook
Urban Mining and JP Morgan has made a 520
million pound ($813.82 million) cash offer for British waste
manager Biffa, the Guardian reported on Wednesday.
The waste management group, which is under pressure to pay
back loans to local British councils, has been trying to sell
certain divisions to reduce its 1-billion pound debt.
Its owners, Montagu Private Equity and Global Infrastructure
Partners (GIP), received a bid from a consortium of Chinook, the
London-based recycling specialist, private equity investor
Clearbrook Capital and U.S. bank JP Morgan.
“This is a serious offer and the only firm bid on the table,
but some of the bankers appear to be blocking it and it is
difficult to get a consensus among so many banks,” a source
close to the negotiations is quoted as saying.
The offer was submitted last week to PricewaterhouseCoopers
(PwC), the advisers to the 76 banks and financial
institutions that lent funds to Biffa’s current owners,
according to the Guardian.
The bid was presented by PwC last Friday at a meeting with
Biffa’s senior management and the lenders to discuss its debt
refinancing strategy, the Guardian said.
