Beijing Capital Eco-Environment Protection Group has agreed to sell Singapore’s ECO Industrial Environmental Engineering to French industrial group Séché Environnement for S$605 million (US$450 million).

ECO is the leading hazardous waste recovery and treatment operator in the city-state in terms of installed capacity, volumes handled, service offerings and customer portfolio. It has been operating since 1995 and has a 32% share of the market.

According to Séché, the acquisition supports its core industrial customers in the dynamic hazardous industrial waste markets of Southeast Asia, and reinforces its prospects for growth and profitability in the region.

ECO occupies a 68,400 square metre site, where its facilities (incinerators, industrial water treatment plant, stabilization plant, etc.) have a total annual capacity of almost 440,000 tonnes.

With around 300 employees, the company is present at every stage of the hazardous waste management value chain in Singapore, providing collection, transportation, recovery, and treatment services for customers.

ECO also holds stakes in two joint ventures active in the circular economy, one specializing in activated carbon reactivation with a global chemicals manufacturer, and the other in precious metals regeneration in partnership with a global precious metals recycling manufacturer.

In 2023, the company generated sales of S$96 million and an adjusted earnings before interests, taxes, depreciation and amortization of S$41 million. Almost 80% of its sales were generated by the recovery and treatment of hazardous waste and 10% by the treatment of sewage sludge from Singapore's water reclamation plants.

Citi acted as the exclusive financial adviser to Beijing Capital on the ECO sale.

"Citi has played a leading role on the most significant transactions involving Chinese divestitures in environmental services over the past few years,” a spokesperson for the bank says. It served as sellside adviser in Beijing Capital’s US$1.3 billion sale of Waste Management New Zealand to Igeno Infrastructure in 2022, and as buyside adviser in Platinum Equity’s US$4.2 billion acquisition of Urbaser from China Tianying in 2021.

Séché Environnement hired BNP Paribas as financial adviser and Latham & Watkins as legal adviser for the transaction.