Navis commits up to $150m to SE Asia e-waste specialist

The deal values TES-Envirocorp at $175-250 milllion, or just over 7x EBITDA for the fiscal year ended April 2013. Navis acquired its stake from two parties: a passive investor group, which has now fully exited, and a group of management shareholders.

TES-Envirocorp specializes in recycling items such as mobile phones, computers, printers and other consumer electronics with may contain hazardous materials or precious materials that can be recovered.

"No government, no consumer and no brand-owner wants to see this stuff end up in landfill, leeching heavy metals into the ground water, so increasingly we are seeing a demand for very specialized firms who are able to get out the valuable stuff and break down the rest in a responsible way," Nicholas Bloy, co-managing partner at Navis, told AVCJ. 

A significant part of TES-Envirocorp's business is processing post-industrial waste through its contracts with major electrical firms looking to dispose of faulty, surplus and end-of-line products. To meet demand from commerical customers, the company will use the fresh capital to support organic and inorganic growth.

"The plan fundamentally is to be at the forefront of globalization and consolidation in the industry," says Bloy, who says all multi-national electronics brands are under increasing pressure from consumers and governments to find envronmentally-friendly ways of processing post-indutrial waste. 

"It is important for these brands that they deal with a company which is totally trustworthy because on the cowboy fringes of the industry, in countries around the world, a lot of cheating goes on," Bloy explained. "Defective products are re-sold into the grey markets, to places like Africa, which can be very damaging to a brand."

Navis has previously been active in the waste management space though its investment in Singapore's ECO Special Waste Management in 2007. The firm provides hazardous waste disposal services to industrial and commercial customers in the petrochemical, pharmaceutical, oil and gas, electronics, and power generation sectors.

"TES-Envirocorp is a actually a customer of ECO so this gave us some piece of mind when investing in the company because we were aware of its corporate reputation," added Bloy.

This is Navis' sixth investment in Singapore and its first this year. The firm manages over $3 billion in equity capital, and has completed around 60 control transactions since 1998.

Last year, Navis completed a take-private of Singapore-listed label manufacturer Adampak and also exited King's Safetywear, an earlier Singapore privatization, for a 4x money multiple.

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• Topics
• Southeast Asia
• Industrials
• Buyouts
• Buyout
• Singapore
• Navis Management
• buyout
• Southeast Asia