At two meetings held at Chartered Accountant's Hall in central London, shareholders owning 98% of Biffa stock voted in favour of the takeover deal.
The takeover offer was for 350p per share, valuing Biffa at £1.231 billion.
Assuming the financial authorities agree to the takeover and subsequent de-listing of Biffa from the London stock exchange as expected, the acquisition could be completed on April 7, Biffa directors said.
Biffa's shares would officially be withdrawn from the stock exchange at 8am on April 8.
Approval
In a statement issued after yesterday's meeting, Biffa's board of directors confirmed that the 75% approval rate required for the deal to go ahead had been achieved.
It said: “A majority in number, representing not less than 75% in value, of the holders of Public Scheme Shares present and voting (either in person or by proxy) voted in favour of the resolution to approve the Scheme. Accordingly this resolution, which was decided on a poll, was passed.”
In terms of the numbers of shareholders voting, the papers from the meeting revealed that at the first meeting yesterday, 87.37% of the shareholders, representing 98.54% of all Biffa shares issued, approved the takeover.
At the subsequent Extraordinary General Meeting, 98.66% of shareholders voted in favour of giving Biffa directors the power to go ahead with the takeover.
The potential new owners of Biffa include Montagu, which has previously had dealings in the waste sector through its ownership of Cory Environmental from 2005 to 2007, and GIP, which is an investment vehicle for US utilities giant General Electric.
Biffa
One of the largest waste management companies in the UK with a £742.7 million annual turnover, Biffa operates 86 depots around the country with a fleet of 1,500 vehicles collecting more than four million tonnes of waste last year.
Biffa has one of the largest waste collection networks in the UK, with 86 depots and over 1,500 vehicles which collected over four million tonnes of waste last year from around 75,000 industrial and commercial customers.
The company also services more than one million households, including through two fully integrated waste management contracts under the Private Finance Initiative with Isle of Wight council and Leicester city council.
Biffa is one of the top three operators of landfills in the UK, taking in more than seven million tonnes of waste at its 32 operational sites, totaling 74 million cubic metres of available capacity.
The company was owned by water firm Severn Trent from 1991 until a demerger in October 2006 (see letsrecycle.com story).
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