Houlihan Advises Liberty Tire Recycling

Houlihan Lokey is pleased to announce that Liberty Tire Recycling (Liberty), a portfolio company of The Carlyle Group (Carlyle), has been acquired by ECP. The transaction closed on May 7, 2021.

Liberty is a premier provider of tire recycling services in North America. Liberty collects and recycles used tires for innovative, beneficial reuse. The recycled rubber produced by Liberty is used as crumb rubber and industrial feedstock for molded products; tire-derived fuel for industrial kilns, mills, and power plants; and rubber mulch for landscaping and playgrounds. With a network of more than 25 processing plants and flexible collection service offerings nationwide, the company saves more than 190 million tires per year from the waste stream, recycling approximately 3 billion pounds of rubber for innovative, sustainable materials and products. Carlyle Strategic Partners IV, an investment fund managed by Carlyle, led a recapitalization transaction to become the company’s majority equity sponsor in December 2017. Under Carlyle’s 3+ year ownership, Liberty grew to become a national company with strong assets, broad capabilities, and innovative products for beneficial reuse.

The Carlyle Group (NASDAQ:CG) is a global investment firm with $246 billion of assets under management as of December 31, 2020. Carlyle has deep industry expertise and deploys private capital across three business segments: Global Private Equity, Global Credit, and Investment Solutions.

ECP, founded in 2005, is a leading investor across energy transition and decarbonization infrastructure assets, including power generation, renewables and storage solutions, sustainability-linked infrastructure, and customer solutions facilitating the energy transition. The ECP team, comprising 52 people with 500 years of collective industry experience, deep expertise, and extensive relationships, has consummated more than 60 transactions over the past 10 years, representing more than $45 billion of enterprise value.

Houlihan Lokey served as the lead financial advisor to Liberty Tire Recycling. This transaction highlights the team’s expertise and continued success advising companies in the environmental services sector, having completed more than 20 transactions since 2018.