SUEZ ENVIRONNEMENT Subsidiary, SITA UK, Selected as Preferred Bidder for West London Public Private Partnership Contract Worth €1 Billion

PARIS, April 29, 2013 /PRNewswire/ --

A consortium led by SITA UK, a subsidiary of SUEZ ENVIRONNEMENT, has been selected as preferred bidder for a resource recovery contract worth €1 billion over 25 years with the West London Waste Authority. Total revenues of the contract are €1.9 billion including the management of third party waste and revenues from the sale of electricity. The other consortium members are Lloyds Banking Group and ITOCHU Corporation.

The contract is to manage up to 300,000 tonnes of residual household waste each year from the West London Boroughs of Brent, Ealing, Harrow, Hillingdon, Hounslow and Richmond-upon-Thames. The waste collected from over 1.4 million residents will be managed in a new energy-from-waste facility in Severnside, South Gloucestershire and transported by rail from West London. Compared to the current waste treatment this will save over 83,000 tonnes of CO2 emissions each year, which is more than two million tonnes over the duration of the contract.

SITA UK will take over the operation of two rail-linked waste transfer stations in West London. The new rail-linked energy-from-waste facility, which will be called the Severnside Energy Recovery Centre (SERC), already has planning permission. This facility will produce enough electricity to power the equivalent of approximately 50,000 homes and could also supply hot water to local businesses, further improving its environmental performance.

The total capital investment in the new facility is over €280 million. A total of 53 permanent jobs will be created at SERC with around 200 jobs being created during its construction.

Jean-Louis Chaussade, CEO of SUEZ ENVIRONNEMENT, said: "Following the Merseyside PFI, this new resource recovery contract illustrates our strong positioning and know-how on energy-from-waste activities. We have a solid track record of delivering new resource management facilities that local authorities need to manage their residual waste. With planning permission already in place for our energy-from-waste facility we look forward to signing the contract and getting on with delivering the infrastructure that is needed to put West London's waste to good use."

Councillor Bassam Mahfouz, Chair of WLWA, said: "For too long we in west London have been sending the waste we didn't recycle to pile up in landfills. This new contract means that virtually nothing will be sent to landfill and our waste will be turned into energy, saving the environment, and saving each borough money. We have also built in that we want to continue increasing recycling, which is already amongst the highest in London."

SUEZ ENVIRONNEMENT, through its subsidiary SITA UK, has developed a number of PPP (Public Private Partnership) contracts across the UK including: Surrey, South Gloucestershire, Kirklees, Cornwall, Northumberland, Aberdeen, the Isle of Man and Teesside. In April 2013, SITA UK and Cornwall Council agreed on a PFI contract variation worth €1.3 billion of revenue and in the same month, a SITA UK led consortium was selected as preferred bidder for a €1.4 billion contract with the Merseyside Recycling and Waste Authority.

In the waste sector, this type of partnership was developed to allow British local authorities to develop alternative waste management facilities to landfill.

SITA UK

SITA UK, a subsidiary of SUEZ ENVIRONNEMENT, is a recycling and resource management company, generating environmental value, social value and economic value from our nation's waste. The company delivers environmentally responsible and increasingly innovative solutions for the public, local government, industry and commerce, enabling our customers to reduce their impact on the environment. SITA UK serves over 12 million people and handles more than eight million tons of domestic, commercial and industrial waste through a network of recycling, composting, energy-from-waste and landfill facilities. SITA UK employs over 5,500 staff and has an annual turnover in excess of £770 million.

SUEZ ENVIRONNEMENT

Natural resources are not infinite. Each day, SUEZ ENVIRONNEMENT (Paris: SEV, Brussels: SEVB) and its subsidiaries deal with the challenge of protecting resources by providing innovative solutions to industry and to millions of people. SUEZ ENVIRONNEMENT supplies drinking water to 96.6 million people, provides wastewater treatment services for 66.3 million people and collects the waste produced by 50 million people. SUEZ ENVIRONNEMENT has 79,550 employees and, with its presence on five continents, is a world leader exclusively dedicated to water and waste management services. In 2012, SUEZ ENVIRONNEMENT, a subsidiary in which GDF SUEZ has a 35.7% interest, generated revenues of EUR 15.1 billion.

WEST LONDON WASTE AUTHORITY

West London Waste Authority (WLWA) is a statutory waste disposal authority and was created in 1986.

Refuse and recycling collection and the operation of Household Re-use and Recycling Centres will not form part of the contract with SITA UK

ITOCHU CORPORATION(ITOCHU)

ITOCHU, a publicly traded company headquartered in Tokyo, Japan, with total assets of approximately £42.8 billion (Mar 2012), was founded in 1858 and currently has approximately 130 offices in 66 countries. ITOCHU's global infrastructure holdings include: development projects or investments in renewable energy and power generation; transportation assets; and water and desalination facilities. Especially in UK's infrastructure, ITOCHU, together with SITA UK, has developed four energy-from-waste projects including: South Tyne and Wear, Cornwall, Merseyside and West London.

LLOYDS BANKING GROUP

SWIP Infrastructure Funds is a greenfield PPP funds management platform in Scottish Widows Investment Partnership a leading European asset management company, part of Lloyds Banking Group.  

SWIP Infrastructure Funds are backed by corporate pension plans, private equity and global institutional investors including the European Investment Bank.

This press release is also available at http://www.suez-environnement.com

SOURCE SUEZ ENVIRONNEMENT