Biffa IPO could be pushed back to 2017, reports say

Biffa's on-off plans for a London stock market listing have been pushed back to the end of 2016 or early 2017 after the waste management group's owners binned a proposed trade sale.

Advisers Rothschild have told interested parties that the company's management have decided on a flotation, Sky News reported.

Reports last summer indicated Biffa, the UK's second-biggest waste collector by revenues, could be worth around £1bn based on a multiple of roughly 10 times the company’s £102m earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation in the year to last March.

Although the multiple may change, in the first half of the current financial year the company lifted EBITDA by 19% to £67.2m, with full-year expectations revised up to £119m.

In August, Biffa was said to have pencilled-in a spring 2016 flotation date but an initial public offer is now said to be planned for the end of 2016 or early next year, according to Sky's sources, who suggested the proceeds of a sale would be used to buy acquisitions.

The waste collection market is highly fragmented, with the 50% of UK recycling and waste collection still under state control expected to be opened up in coming years as part of the government's austerity-led outsourcing and privatisation drive.

Biffa was spun out of Severn Trent in 2006 before its private equity owners were forced to sell the then-beleaguered company to a group of its lenders. Its main current shareholders are hedge funds Angelo Gordon, Avenue Capital and Sankaty Advisors, with management also holding a chunk of equity.