Pan-European mid-market private equity fund Agilitas has invested in the management buyout of the waste management businesses of Impetus Waste Management, a waste management and property group in the North-East of England.
The consideration for the acquisition is not being disclosed. Impetus was founded in 2003.
In 2007 Ian Hunter became the majority shareholder of Impetus. Along with the existing management team he has grown the group to become one of the largest waste management companies in the North East of England. The waste management business handles over 500,000 tonnes per annum of commercial, industrial and municipal waste through its two waste transfer stations at Wallsend and Washington and its two landfill sites at Cowpen Bewley and Teesport.
As part of the company’s strategy for diversion away from landfills, Impetus has recently signed a 20-year agreement to supply waste to Air Products Limited. Air Products will construct and operate a Waste-to-Energy plant at the North Tees Reclamation Pond site, where Impetus will build a new waste transfer station, adjacent to the Air Product plant with a capacity of 600,000 tonnes per annum. This creates the opportunity to transform the current business, converting previously landfilled waste into refuse derived fuel, and using this to create renewable energy for some 50,000 homes.
Martin Calderbank, founding partner at Agilitas, says: “Impetus is an organisation at the crossroads of transformational change and we see huge opportunities in helping the management team develop their business in waste to energy.”
Richard Lord, managing director of Impetus, adds: “With landfill sites in the north east likely to be full by the end of the decade, it is vital to find a new approach and I am delighted to be working with Agilitas in the development of a new defensible green business.”
