GFL Environmental Inc. GFL-T has turned down a US$22-billion buyout offer from Wall Street private equity funds after the waste-disposal giant’s board decided their offer was inadequate.
Late Monday, GFL directors ended a four-month strategic review by telling a consortium of bidders led by Blackstone Inc., KKR & Co. Inc. and Energy Capital Partners LLC that the board would not accept their US$52-a-share offer, according to two sources with knowledge of the process.
The Globe and Mail is not identifying the sources because the individuals are not authorized to speak publicly.
GFL, which owns the bright green trucks that pick up trash across North America, is expected to announce that the strategic review has concluded without a sale on Tuesday.
The spurned take-private offer represented a 13-per-cent premium to the price of GFL stock on Monday. GFL’s board members pushed the U.S. asset managers for an offer of US$58 a share or more and the consortium refused to meet this request, the sources said.
GFL was founded in Vaughan, Ont., in 2007 by entrepreneur and current chief executive officer Patrick Dovigi, who built the company through a series of takeovers. It is now headquartered in Miami. The company’s shares trade on the Toronto and New York stock exchanges and closed in New York on Monday at US$45.88.
As part of the GFL board’s decision to end the review without a sale, the company plans to allow one of its largest shareholders, London-based BC Partners, to sell a significant portion of its 13-per-cent stake to outside investors, the sources said.
In July, GFL launched a review after receiving what Mr. Dovigi called “unsolicited preliminary expressions of interest from multiple parties to take the company private.”
GFL’s share price had dropped sharply earlier in the year after the company launched a friendly $5.4-billion takeover of Calgary-based Secure Waste Infrastructure Corp. At least two private equity fund managers approached GFL with take-private offers that would value the company at more than US$20-billion.
Since the review was announced in July, GFL’s share price has risen by more than 20 per cent.
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Analysts predicted GFL would turn down offers if the board decided they undervalued the company. There are 17 investment-bank analysts who cover GFL, and 15 predict that its stock will be worth north of US$50 in a year’s time. Their price targets range up to US$64 per share.
The private equity offer valued GFL at roughly 12 times its forecasted 2027 earnings, well below the average 14 to 16 times earnings ratio of the sector’s leading public companies.
If the private equity takeover had gone forward. Mr. Dovigi previously said he would retain his 33-per-cent stake in the company under the new owners. However, sources said Mr. Dovigi was unwilling to support a transaction GFL’s board judged was unfair to public shareholders.
Since walking away from a potential career in the National Hockey League – in 1997, the Edmonton Oilers drafted Mr. Dovigi as a goalie – GFL’s founder has scored with backing from a series of private equity funds.
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Two global asset managers, BC Partners and Apollo Global Management Inc. in New York, currently have investments in GFL and its offspring. In the past, the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and Australia’s Macquarie Group made significant gains on their GFL stakes.
One of the spurned bidders on GFL, Energy Capital, already owns a stake in a company called Green Infrastructure Partners that GFL partly spun out in August 2025.
New Jersey-based Energy Capital invested US$775-million in a recapitalization that valued Green Infrastructure at US$4.25 billion. GFL continues to own roughly 30 per cent of Green Infrastructure.
North America’s waste disposal industry is dominated by a handful of large companies that are attempting to consolidate what was a fragmented market, with many collections services owned by municipalities. In addition to GFL, the fourth-largest company in the sector, the major players are Waste Management Inc., Republic Services Inc. and Waste Connections Inc.
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to correct BC Partners’ stake in GFL. It now owns 13 per cent.