Waste Management stalks big Australian

Waste Management is eying one of Australia's largest waste management networks in its bid to expand across the Tasman.

WSN Environmental Solutions, owned and valued by the New South Wales government at A$250 million ($271 million), is expected to be privatised this year. When it does, this country's largest waste collection and landfill company will be a bidder.

WSN owns and operates 10 waste recycling, processing and disposal facilities in NSW.

Chief executive Kim Ellis said its sale had been pushed high up the agenda by the state's new premier, Morris Iemma, but it had been tight-lipped on the timing.

Speculation was it would be anywhere from six months to a year.

"There are a lot of regulatory issues around it because it's a semi-monopoly, and every man and his dog is looking at it. So it's really watch this space at the moment."

Ellis is keen to grow the business in the Australian market, which it entered four years ago and which now provides 20 per cent of the company's income.

It has made about 15 small to medium-sized acquisitions in Brisbane, Melbourne, Queensland and Albury in New South Wales. Opening a $40 million landfill and transfer station at Inkerman, 85km south of Adelaide, has been its biggest opportunity so far.

Total investment in Australia is about A$80 million.

Breaking out from its modest position across the Tasman was now one of the company's challenges, Ellis said last week when reporting a half-year net profit of $14.8 million - $2.1 million up on last year. The company also forecast a rise in its annual profit to about $30 million.