Veolia Environnement Purchases Brambles' UK Waste Business for $1.09 Billion

Date: June 29, 2006

Source: Agence France-Presse English Wire

Services group Brambles Industries Ltd. said Friday it would sell the UK arm of its waste management business Cleanaway to France's Veolia ES Holdings for 595 million pounds (1.09 billion US dollars).

The sale to Veolia, a subsidiary of Veolia Environnement SA, comes as the Anglo-Australian company focusses on its CHEP pallets business and document management operations.

Brambles chief executive David Turner said the sustained improvement in Cleanaway's performance in Britain this year had led to the attractive price that has been agreed.

"Brambles' divestment programme is now essentially complete and has generated total proceeds of 3.52 billion US dollars, significantly more than our initial estimates," Turner said in a statement.

Brambles has also divested its Cleanaway businesses in Germany, Australia and New Zealand.

For the year to June 30, 2005, Cleanaway UK had sales of 485 million pounds with an operating profit of 22 million pounds. The gross assets as of last December 31 were valued at 340 million pounds.

Brambles said the sale was conditional upon approval from the relevant competition authorities in Europe.

Cleanaway UK is one of the largest collectors of municipal, commercial, industrial and trade waste in England and Wales and operates a specialist fleet of approximately 2,000 vehicles.

Veolia Environnement is an environmental services company with more than 270,000 employees worldwide.

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