Bidders shortlisted in sale of German waste manager - sources (updated)

China Everbright Environment

17/12/2015 21:48

(Repeats story published late Thursday; no changes to text) 
    * Beijing Enterprise, Fortum, Macquarie/Steag to bid-sources 
    * Final offers due late January - sources 
    * Cut-off price was 1.7 billion euros - sources 
 
    FRANKFURT, Dec 17 (Reuters) - Three bidders have been 
shortlisted in an auction of German waste management company 
EEW, in a deal potentially worth more than 1.7 billion euros 
($1.8 billion), two people familiar with the matter said.  
    China's Beijing Enterprise Holdings  0392.HK , Finnish 
utility Fortum  FUM1V.HE  and a consortium comprising 
infrastructure investor Macquarie  MQG.AX  and German utility 
Steag have been asked to hand in final bids for Energy from 
Waste (EEW) by late January, the people added.      
    Other interested parties such as China Everbright 
International  0257.HK  and Beijing Capital Group are currently 
out of the process as their offers came in below the cut-off 
price of 1.7 billion euros, one of the sources said. 
    For 2015, EEW is expected to post core earnings, or earnings 
before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortisation, of 180 
million euros. 
    If the final price remains at about 1.7 billion euros that 
would be roughly in line with the 9 times core earnings that 
China's Cheung Kong Infrastructure  1038.HK  paid for AVR when 
it bought the Dutch energy-from-waste company in 2013. 
    EEW's private equity owner EQT as well as the bidders 
declined to comment, except for Beijing Enterprises and Beijing 
Capital which were not immediately available for comment.  
    China has set a target to spend about $16 billion between 
2013 and 2016 to improve sewage disposal and garbage treatment, 
and so Chinese companies have been expected to pursue EEW. 
    The rare bidding war between government companies is also a 
sign China is giving greater freedom to its state-owned 
enterprises, as part of President Xi Jinping's reforms of the 
country's sprawling government entities.  urn:newsml:reuters.com:*:nL3N13B1LW 
    Fortum is looking for acquisitions following its recent 9.3 
billion euro power grid divestments in the Nordic region. 
    ($1 = 0.9227 euros) 
 
 (Reporting by Arno Schuetze; Additional reporting by Sui-Lee 
Wee and Jussi Rosendahl; Editing by Mark Potter) 
 ((arno.schuetze@thomsonreuters.com; +49.69.7565.1197; Reuters 
Messaging: arno.schuetze.reuters.com@reuters.net)) 
 
Keywords: CHINA WASTE/M&A