Spain / Germany | Spanish waste management company Befesa has signed an agreement to acquire the complete production assets of Aluminium-Salzschlacke Aufbereitungs GmbH and Alsa Süd GmbH, the 100%-owned subsidiaries of Germany’s Agor AG. Both companies specialise in the treatment and recycling of salt slags and are currently insolvent.
External financing has been provided by Commerzbank as part of a non-recourse transaction.
According to Befesa, the deal will make the company Europe’s leading recycler of salt slags resulting from the aluminium recycling process. The assets to be acquired include three production plants in the German municipalities of Hannover, Lünen and Töging which boast a combined treatment capacity of 380 000 tonnes per year and which are said to be equipped with the most advanced technology in the market. Befesa currently operates two plants for recycling salt slags - in Valladolid (Spain) and in Wales - which have a combined capacity to handle 230 000 tonnes per year.
For Befesa’s Chairman Javier Molina, the acquisition makes excellent strategic sense, not least because it ‘consolidates our leadership position in Europe for industrial waste recycling’. The environmental services subsidiary of Abengoa, Befesa focuses on providing environmental services to industry and on the construction of environmental infrastructures. It is a public listed company with a market capitalisation exceeding Euro 325 million (close 2008).
Acknowledgement
www.befesa.com
www.recyclinginternational.com
