Macquarie Group is believed to be moving towards a sale of its embattled waste collection company Bingo Industries (Bingo Industries Limited), sources say, after MA Moelis was earlier hired as an adviser. Market observers have been in a state of suspense over Bingo to learn whether the $75 billion financial powerhouse opts to save the business by injecting additional equity into the operation, place it into receivership, buy the debt from the lenders, or place it up for sale. But sources now say Macquarie has been testing buyer interest and believe the business is slated for sale.
Lenders are believed to be owed close to $1 billion from the waste-management company that has been one of the rare bad bets for asset manager Macquarie in recent years. Bingo debt was trading at about 60c in the dollar before Christmas. Most financiers are collateralised lending groups from overseas.
Ratings agencies have downgraded the debt to junk bond status. Sources say infrastructure funds are unlikely to line up as buyers for the company, as they may have done so before it hit such levels of distress. Rather, it would probably be opportunistic buyers like Oaktree Capital Management, Bain Credit, Cerberus Capital, Apollo Global Management and Canyon Partners that look at Bingo.
This would potentially be along with Australian groups in the sector like Anchorage Capital Partners or Allegro Funds. The waste-management business was purchased by Macquarie Asset Management (Macquarie Asset Management Pty Limited) in a $2.6 billion buyout deal in 2021. Since that time, managing-director Daniel Tartak from the founding Tartak family has left the company after being charged with criminal cartel offences.
Other problems for Bingo include too much debt and a slowdown in the construction market, which is important to Bingo as a major supplier of skip bins for waste disposal. It also has high capital costs. Previous lenders to Bingo have included US groups Anchorage Capital, The Carlyle Group, MJX Asset Management, First Eagle and Sculptor Capital Management.
