Transactional Commercial Due Diligence Support for Waste-to-Energy Portfolio Investment

Objectives

A global investment organisation with a focus on investments that drive climate action, acquired an operator of Waste-to-Energy facilities in North America, the UK and Ireland in 2021.

The organisation’s purpose-driven investment model presents several growth opportunities for the waste operator, whose business centres on sustainable waste processing and the advancement of the transition to a circular economy.

Annually, the operator reports the conversion of approximately 21 million tons of waste from municipalities and businesses into electricity to power one million homes and recycle 600,000 tons of metal. The Waste-to-Energy, or Energy-from-Waste (EfW), process is a key contributor to landfill diversion, reducing methane emissions and recovering energy from waste.

Project

Anthesis provided commercial due diligence support to the global investment organisation, to evaluate markets for the waste operator’s EfW plant portfolio. The focus of Anthesis’ work was to provide specialist insights and expertise on the individual EfW assets and their commercial viability, including analysis of gate fee assumptions and revenue forecasting for financial modelling, as well as contract reviews to ascertain the level of feedstock security. In addition, we provided recycling rate and EfW market and competition assessments to identify risks and opportunities for the portfolio as well as the individual assets. Anthesis also considered on-site expansions, co-location opportunities, implications of carbon taxation to advise on the expansion potential for value creation of the existing portfolio and the future pipeline. 

Services

• Commercial due diligence of revenue drivers and feedstock security
• Market and competition analysis for residual waste and EfW infrastructure
• Gate fee assessment and revenue forecasting
• Recycling rate analysis to evaluate the future impact on the EfW markets
• Support in the assessment of additional opportunities and value enhancement

Impacts

Deliverables included comprehensive due diligence reporting, including red flag reports, management meetings and QA. 
Our assessment included the identification of key risks and issues that potentially impact on business plan assumptions and a summary of key diligence findings.