Kinderhook sells equity interest in Rizzo Environmental Services, Inc. to GFL Environmental Inc.
October 3, 2016
New York, NY – Kinderhook Industries, LLC (“Kinderhook”) announced today the sale of Kinderhook’s equity interest in Rizzo Environmental Services, Inc. (“Rizzo” or the “Company”) to a U.S. subsidiary of GFL Environmental Inc. (“GFL”). Financial terms of the transaction were not disclosed.
Founded in 1988 and headquartered in Sterling Heights, Michigan, Rizzo is a market leader in municipal, commercial and industrial solid waste collection and in commercial recycling processing and brokerage. Rizzo currently provides collection services to more than 40 municipalities in Southeastern Michigan. Its recycling operations, with three commercial recycling facilities, serve customers in lower Michigan and northern Ohio. The current management team of Rizzo, led by Chuck Rizzo, Jr. will remain with the Company.
Headquartered in Toronto, ON, GFL is a Canadian diversified environmental services company offering services in solid waste management, liquid waste management and soil remediation. Through its platform of operations in Canada and the U.S., GFL serves over 80,000 commercial, industrial and institutional customers, more than 2.5 million households under municipal collection contracts and has a workforce of more than 4,000 employees.
Chuck Rizzo, Chief Executive Officer of Rizzo, said, “We are excited to partner with GFL and I’m grateful to retain and expand my equity share. We are greatly appreciative of the support and strategic guidance that Kinderhook has provided over the last four years. Kinderhook has been an outstanding partner for our management team as we completed and integrated eleven acquisitions in conjunction with growing the business organically through the addition of over 20 new municipal contracts.”
Rob Michalik, Managing Director at Kinderhook, stated, “We have immensely enjoyed working closely with Chuck and his team over the last four years. At Kinderhook, we are firm believers in the investment of capital into operations and management as a means to position companies to grow and provide the best service to their customers. The sale of Rizzo illustrates Kinderhook’s investment strategy of partnering with strong management teams to build and grow successful companies that attract strategic buyers. The combination of Rizzo and GFL creates one of the industry’s largest private environmental services providers and we expect Rizzo to continue to flourish under GFL’s ownership.”
Kirkland & Ellis LLP served as legal counsel to Kinderhook.