RREEF in final stages for Cory Environmental

Deutsche Bank’s asset management division RREEF is closing in on a deal to buy a British recycling and waste management business as it tries to increase its presence in the European infrastructure sector.

News wire services are reporting that RREEF Infrastructure is among the final three parties on a shortlist of bidders for Cory Environmental, citing sources familiar with the situation. The report also names Dutch bank ABN AMRO as being in the later stages of the auction. Final bids are expected to be submitted next week and a decision should follow swiftly afterwards.

Cory is owned by London-based private equity firm Montagu Private Equity, which bought the business for £200 million ($385 million; €295 million) in April 2005. The company operates from more than 30 locations, including a number of landfill sites in Essex. It transports almost 20 percent of London’s waste on barges along the River Thames, according to the company’s website.

The UK recycling and waste industry has attracted heavy interest from private equity firms. Guy Hands’ Terra Firma has been at the forefront. In 2003 the London-based firm bought Waste Recycling Group for an enterprise value of £530 million ($1 billion; €778 million).

RREEF Infrastructure is headed by John McCarthy in Europe and has approximately €1.6 billion of assets under management. In December it won a contract to design, build, finance and operate the first section of the Vienna north-eastern bypass toll road in the first PPP-type road project in Austria, which will cost around €945 million. In November, the division bought a 49 percent stake in Peel Ports, reportedly worth around €1.1 billion.

The company declined to comment on its interest in Cory.