Ferrovial’s Environment division recorded annual sales of 1.018 billion euros in 2020, gross operating profit of 130 million, including dividends, and had an order book of 2.177 billion at year-end. The company has a workforce of 16,000 employees and manages 140 recycling plants where it processes 5.6 million tonnes of waste each year. It also does street cleaning, selective collection and maintenance of green areas in more than 600 Spanish municipalities for more than 15 million citizens.
PreZero, headquartered in Neckarsulm, Baden-Württemberg, is an environmental service provider with 13,000 employees and some 280 locations in Europe and North America. It is part of the Schwarz Group, one of the leading food chains in Germany and Europe.
The transaction, which comprises the transfer of the environmental and waste collection, treatment and recycling businesses, has an enterprise value of 1.133 billion euros, including equity and debt. The sale is expected to generate a capital gain of 317 million euros, assuming an equity value of 950 million at the time of of signing. This may vary slightly due to accounting adjustments between the signing and closing of the transaction, pending customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals by the European authorities. The operation is expected to take place in the second half of 2021. According to Bankinter analysts, the sale price implies a multiple of 8.7x EV/EBITDA 2020.
At the beginning of last year, Ferrovial conducted a strategic review of all its businesses and classified all its Services operations as “available for sale”. This sale continues the process of divesting Ferrovial Services, which began with the sale of Broadspectrum – with operations in Australia and New Zealand – on 20 June 2020. The divestment of the rest of Ferrovial Services’ businesses continues in the UK, Spain, Chile and the US.
