All Eyes on Divested Assets - Waste Connections Could Be Winner

Date: October 13, 2008

Source: News Room

With Waste Management's offer to purchase Republic Services now off the table, all eyes are now on what is to become of assets that might be divested as a result of Republic's merger with Allied Waste, now expected to proceed unabated. Brian J. Butler, of investment research firm Friedman, Billings, Ramsey is convinced that Waste Connections, with nearly $1 billion in cash from a recent stock offering, is a leading contender for these assets. This stems from speculation that the Department of Justice may require significant divestitures given the size of Republic and Allied and their market overlap. Moreover, the complexity of the Republic / Allied deal will probably encourage the desire to sell divested assets in a lump sum. This limits the number of qualified buyers. Other bidders could include BFI Canada, which recently transformed itself into a corporate structure for just such purposes, Veolia, a significant player and even more so internationally, Waste Services which recently refinancedits debt, and Waste Industries USA, which took itself private last year.

See also: www.wasteinfo.com/news/wbj20081014B.htm.

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