GFL garbage trucks collect recycling and kitchen waste in Toronto. The waste management giant confirmed Thursday that it has received multiple unsolicited expressions of interest.Fred Lum/The Globe and Mail
GFL Environmental Inc. GFL-T is evaluating multiple offers to take the company private at a price chief executive officer Patrick Dovigi calls “materially higher” than its current market value.
Weeks after The Globe and Mail and other media outlets reported GFL had been approached by at least two parties about a potential privatization, the Canadian waste management giant confirmed Thursday it has received multiple unsolicited expressions of interest. GFL, which has a current market value of roughly $20.9-billion, has formed a special committee of independent members of its board of directors to review the offers.
“We feel slightly vindicated that I think all the intrinsic value we believe we’ve created has attracted others who have approached us about taking the company private at a materially higher number than the company is currently trading for today,” Mr. Dovigi said on a Thursday morning conference call with analysts to discuss the company’s second-quarter financial results.
“The real question is, privately, can you just do things faster that you couldn’t necessarily do in the public markets as quickly.”
Mr. Dovigi controls roughly one-quarter of the company through his multiple voting shares, meaning any formal offer to buy GFL would likely struggle to succeed without his support. On the conference call, he said one of the parties that approached the company included a condition asking Mr. Dovigi to roll over his equity, meaning he would continue to be a major shareholder rather than cashing out.
“As most of you know on this call, I’m not a seller,” Mr. Dovigi said. “I’m not a seller at 40 [dollars a share]. I’m not a seller at 50. I’m not a seller at 60 and not a seller at 70 and I’d be rolling 100 per cent of my equity into whatever is sort of being proposed.”
The company’s stock climbed 3.9 per cent to US$41.81 a share in mid-afternoon trading on the New York Stock Exchange.
GFL has spent most of its existence as a private company. It was founded by Mr. Dovigi in 2007, but did not go public in Toronto and New York until March, 2020.
Private backers that over time included Roark Capital, HPS Investment Partners, the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan and BC Partners have helped finance a lengthy growth-by-acquisition strategy that allowed Mr. Dovigi to scale the business quickly.
“I’m very, sort of, well versed in the private equity world,” Mr. Dovigi said on the call, citing six times he recapitalized the company with private equity investments before eventually taking GFL public.
As a public company, GFL has faced significantly more scrutiny. In April, after announcing a $5.4-billion plan to acquire Calgary-based Secure Waste Infrastructure Corp., analysts repeatedly questioned Mr. Dovigi and other members of the management team about the rationale, and GFL shares slumped 10 per cent the day the deal was announced.
Two of the parties that approached GFL about a potential privatization “were doing a significant amount of work on Secure and believe Secure was an exceptional acquisition,” Mr. Dovigi said.
Earlier this month, The Globe reported that GFL has recently held talks with American private equity firm Apollo Global Management Inc. about a potential investment. Apollo and BC Partners acquired a majority stake in GFL’s environmental services division for $6.2-billion in early 2025.
GFL did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Thursday on whether Apollo is among the parties that have offered to take the company private.