Waste Mgmt takeover wins OIO approval

The Overseas Investment Office has approved the sale of the Waste Management New Zealand business to international investment firm Igneo Infrastructure Partners.

Igneo signed a deal to buy Waste Management NZ from Chinese private-equity firm Beijing Capital after beating KKR & Co and Morgan Stanley Infrastructure Partners to the draw in April.

Igneo managing director Evan Maehl said the company supported Waste Management’s ambition to be New Zealand’s leader in materials and energy recovery.

The company is already New Zealand’s largest composter.

Waste Management collects a quarter of the country’s recycling and operates one of the largest EV fleets in Australia and New Zealand.

Waste Management is the third standalone investment made by Igneo in New Zealand in recent years.

The others are First Gas, a natural gas transmission, storage and distribution business, and Tuatahi First Fibre, the second largest fibre-to-the-premises broadband network.

Maehl said it would be “business as usual” at Waste Management following the purchase.

Igneo — an autonomous investment team in the First Sentier Investors Group — invests in high-quality, mature, mid-market infrastructure companies in the utilities and transport sectors in the UK, Europe, North America, Australia and New Zealand.