FCC finalizes acquisition of Urbaser UK

This completed the £398 million deal, which was first mooted in December 2023.

The FCC said the transaction strengthened FCC Environment UK’s position, enabling it to expand its product and service offering.

Urbaser UK provides municipal waste collection and street cleaning services, as well as composting, material recovery, energy from waste, final disposal plants and household recycling centers.

FCC Environment UK chief executive Steve Longdon said: “As one of the UK’s most advanced waste management companies, this transaction is a huge positive for our business and further strengthens our core services.

“We welcome the Urbaser team with whom we will continue to do our job of delivering essential services to all our customers every day.”

Both FCC and Urbaser are Spanish owned and entered the UK market in 1989 and 1998 respectively.

Urbaser said it employs around 1,700 people in the UK and processed 1.5 million tonnes of waste in 2022, representing around 5% of group revenue. It was acquired by Platinum Equity in 2021.

Urbaser UK’s acquisitions included J&B Recycling in 2021, which it said at the time brought with it a “significant portfolio of local authority contracts”. In 2022, it also purchased Biowise from Wastewise Holdings.

The FCC stated that it would take over all local government contracts held by Urbaser.

These include a £178.2m contract awarded in December last year by London Borough of Havering for integrated recycling, rubbish collection and street cleaning, and a £2.6m contract awarded in February by Burnley Borough Council for waste services and cleansing.

Other boroughs served by Urbaser include Gosport, Tunbridge Wells, Dudley, North Lincolnshire and Waltham Forest.