Interstate Waste Services

Houlihan Lokey is pleased to announce that Interstate Waste Services (IWS), a portfolio company of Littlejohn & Co. (Littlejohn), has received a significant equity investment from funds managed by the Private Equity Group of Ares Management Corp. (NYSE:ARES). Littlejohn will retain a significant ownership stake in IWS. In conjunction with the equity transaction, IWS also announced that it has completed a debt recapitalization. The transaction closed on October 24, 2023.

Headquartered in Teaneck, New Jersey, IWS is the largest privately held, vertically integrated provider of solid waste collection, transfer, recycling, and disposal services in the greater New York City and New Jersey markets. IWS operates more than 650 collection vehicles serviced by a network of nearly 30 facilities, including transfer stations, material recovery facilities, transloading facilities, and a rail-served solid waste landfill in Ohio. With 1,900+ employees, IWS is one of the nation’s fastest-growing and most innovative providers of nonhazardous waste management and recycling services with a diverse range of commercial, industrial, and residential customers throughout Northern and Central New Jersey, Orange, and Rockland Counties in New York, as well as the five boroughs of New York City. The partnership between Littlejohn and Ares will further accelerate IWS’ growth, providing access to greater financial and operational resources and capabilities that will enable IWS to pursue organic and inorganic growth initiatives while continuing to safely deliver essential environmental services to its customers.

Littlejohn is a Greenwich, Connecticut-based investment firm focused on private equity and debt investments, primarily in growing middle-market industrial and services companies that can benefit from Littlejohn’s 25+ years of operational and sector expertise. With approximately $8 billion in regulatory assets under management, the firm seeks to build sustainable success for its portfolio companies through a disciplined approach to engineering change.

Ares is a leading global alternative investment manager offering clients complementary primary and secondary investment solutions across the credit, private equity, real estate, and infrastructure asset classes. Ares seeks to provide flexible capital to support businesses and create value for its stakeholders and within its communities. By collaborating across its investment groups, Ares aims to generate consistent and attractive investment returns throughout market cycles. As of June 30, 2023, Ares’ global platform had approximately $378 billion of assets under management, with more than 2,600 employees operating across North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific, and the Middle East.

Houlihan Lokey served as the financial advisor to IWS and Littlejohn. Houlihan Lokey has had a long-standing relationship with IWS and its predecessors spanning multiple transactions, including two separate financings of the Apex landfill in 2016 and 2019, Littlejohn’s initial investment in IWS in 2020 that facilitated its acquisition of Apex, and the sale of Solterra Recycling to IWS in 2022.

This transaction highlights Houlihan Lokey’s leading position and continued success advising clients in the environmental services sector and, more specifically, the firm’s leading market share in advising on solid waste transactions. Other marquee solid waste transactions over the past two years include the successful sales of Coastal Waste & Recycling to Macquarie, Rogue Waste to Waste Connections, Lone Star Disposal to Waste Connections, and GreenWaste Recovery to Macquarie.