The Spanish company Urbaser has commissioned Banco Santander to sell its Argentine subsidiary. This subsidiary employs approximately 3,500 people and generates an EBITDA of around 80 million euros, with an estimated valuation between 300 and 400 million euros. This operation is being carried out independently, as the business in the country was excluded from the scope of the main transaction, under which Blackstone and EQT are acquiring the rest of the Urbaser group for 5.6 billion euros. The subsidiary operates under the company Urbaser Inversiones Argentina SL, incorporated in December 2023 to segregate the country's activities. Internationally, the group operates in about 15 countries and manages more than 20 million tons of waste annually. The sale of the Argentine subsidiary is part of the strategy of Platinum Equity, the current owner of Urbaser since 2021, when it acquired it for 3.5 billion euros, to generate additional capital gains. In the main deal, Blackstone and EQT will split the shareholding equally and will each inject 1.3 billion euros, partly to repay a PIK loan of approximately 1 billion euros, as well as to assume nearly 3 billion euros in debt. The agreement between Platinum Equity, Blackstone, and EQT represents the second-largest private equity acquisition in Spain in terms of enterprise value, only surpassed by that of Cepsa in 2019. The company in Argentina develops comprehensive waste management services, including collection, treatment, and valorization. According to information gathered by the Argentine News Agency, the local unit employs approximately 3,500 people and in 2023 recorded net profits of around 8 million euros, with an estimated operating result of around 80 million euros. Urbaser has maintained a presence in Argentina for about 30 years. It began operations around 1996 and currently concentrates its business on waste management, in line with its global circular economy model.
