Biffa, the High Wycombe-headquartered waste management giant, is set to list its shares on the London Stock Exchange next month in an initial public offering (IPO) which reportedly could value the firm at around £1bn.
The company, which owns plastics recycling operation Biffa Polymers, posted net revenues of £830.3m in its financial year ended March 2016, up 7.6% on the previous year, while underlying earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (Ebitda) rose 16% to £122.3m.
Biffa said it expected to raise gross proceeds from the IPO of around £270m, which after fees and other IPO-related expenses would go towards paying down debt and settling a dispute with the UK tax authorities over payment of landfill tax.
The UK waste market was set to grow by 5% a year and be worth £18.5bn by 2020, Biffa said, “driven by population and household growth; UK regulation which would require further separate collections and treatment, and an increasingly complex supply chain”, all of which supported its strategic positioning, it added.
Ian Wakelin, the group's chief executive, said: “These are exciting times for Biffa. The group has a 100 year history at the forefront of the industry providing collection, processing and disposal of waste and recyclables.
“We believe there are multiple levers for continued organic growth and margin expansion in a market underpinned by structural growth drivers which favour Biffa's service-oriented business model.
“Moreover, we operate in a fragmented market providing opportunities for further highly synergistic in-fill acquisitions.”
Wakelin went on: “We are successfully implementing a three-pronged growth strategy, centred on growing our market presence, broadening our range of services to meet our customers' complex needs and driving efficiencies across the business. We look forward to continuing to implement this strategy as a public company.”