Macquarie Capital has been appointed to provide strategic business planning to the Dutch waste management company Attero, IJGlobal can confirm.

Sources say Attero recently appointed Macquarie to provide input into a long term strategic business planning exercise currently being undertaken by the company and its commercial advisers. Presently, there is no sale process underway and teasers have not been issued. Both shareholders are working closely with Attero’s management team to deliver the next phase of Attero’s growth.

Energy to waste company Attero is jointly owned by DWS and 3i Infrastructure. The parties acquired a 50% stake in 2018 – for €201 million each – from Dutch private equity fund Waterland  (which in 2014 acquired it from a group of public shareholders consisting of provinces and municipalities).

A couple of months after the acquisition, 3i announced it would decrease its stake to 32.5% in exchange for a €71 million consideration. The buyers of the 17.5% stake were clients of 3i Group. Following this, 3i sold down a further 7.5% shareholding for around €30 million.

3i Infrastructure retains governance over 50% of Attero, but holds only a 25% direct equity stake.

The transaction marked DWS’ first investment in the waste sector and its first in the Netherlands and was made via its Pan-European Infrastructure II fund.

Waste treatment and disposal company Attero processes 4 million tonnes of waste per year across 15 operational sites in the Netherlands. It owns:

• energy from waste (EfW) plants
• sorting and pre-treatment facilities
• anaerobic digestion facilities
• composting facilities
• landfills

It currently has 800 employees and operates both in the Netherlands and internationally, having been active in the sector for almost 90 years.

Macquarie and 3i were contacted at the time of publishing but both declined to comment.