EQT to buy Australia's Cleanaway Waste for $6.5 billion

· Finance · Australia · Sweden

Swedish private equity group EQT AB has agreed to acquire Australia's Cleanaway Waste Management Ltd. through a unit, in a deal valuing the company at about A$9.3 billion ($6.5 billion). The transaction follows a period of share underperformance at Cleanaway and makes it the latest Australian listed company to pass into private hands. It is one of the largest take-private deals in the Australian market and adds waste management to EQT's infrastructure and services portfolio. The agreement is subject to the usual closing conditions, including shareholder and regulatory approvals, which the items do not detail. The immediate effect is to set a sizeable premium benchmark for Australian industrials and to add another delisting to a market that has seen a steady drain of listed companies into private equity ownership.

Why it matters：Take-private deals of this size show private capital's appetite for defensive infrastructure-like assets and shrink the pool of listed Australian industrials, shaping valuations for the sector.

Key points

  • EQT is acquiring Cleanaway through a subsidiary unit.
  • The deal values Cleanaway at about A$9.3 billion, or $6.5 billion.
  • Cleanaway had underperformed on the share market before the approach.

Sources (original reporting)

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