Trash to treasure: Waste management biz JR Richards lures PE bigwigs
Private equity likes the look of family-owned waste management business JR Richards & Sons.
JRR claims to have the biggest market share in waste management in regional NSW.
Street Talk can reveal JR Richards, regional NSW’s biggest player with $24 million in annual earnings, has collected non-binding indicative bids and shortlisted a handful of bidders to progress in the auction.
The final round is expected to see Clark Perkins’ Mercury Capital go toe to toe with Swedish PE giant EQT Partners. The private equity firms are rubbing shoulders with a handful of rival buyout funds and strategic parties in the data room, sources said.
Mercury Capital knows the lay of the land, having acquired recycling and resource recovery business Re.Group last year. As a part of the deal, the Sydney PE investor orchestrated a bolt-on acquisition of Polytrade, a recycling sorting and processing outfit. The firm has also owned tyre recycling and recovery specialist ResourceCo since 2020.
Both deals were led by Oliver Tompkins, a partner at the low-profile but powerful firm. Sources said Tompkins was again leading the charge on JRR, while EQT has private equity head Frank Heckes running point on the firm’s bid.
The up-for-grabs JRR was put up for sale by its founding family after 65 years. Corporate advisory boutique VCA Partners has been running the sale process, as reported by Street Talk in August.
An eight-page flyer, sent to prospective buyers and seen by Street Talk, claimed JRR served more customers, more councils and more regions than any other provider in regional NSW. It holds municipal collection contracts for 36 of the 73 local government areas that outsource waste management, with a 95 per cent retention rate for contracts.
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