A truck from GFL Environmental Inc makes its rounds through a neighbourhood in Toronto on November 5, 2019. A string of shootings and arson attempts have been targeting the waste management giant this year.CARLOS OSORIO/Reuters
GFL Environmental Inc. GFL-T chief executive officer Patrick Dovigi publicly acknowledged the string of shootings and arson attempts targeting the waste-management giant, telling analysts that the company is co-operating with police and reversing his previous position that some of the violent acts were unrelated incidents.
On a conference call Thursday, Mr. Dovigi said he hopes police investigations will resolve the cases in the near term, but added that the “incidents are not going to derail or distract us.”
“We are not going to comment on any specifics because the police are investigating and the investigations are ongoing,” he said.
Mr. Dovigi had a different take in October after his Toronto home and the home of another GFL-linked executive, Ted Manziaris, were fired upon an hour apart in the middle of the night. At the time, Mr. Dovigi confirmed the shooting at his house in Rosedale, but told The Globe and Mail that it was an attempted robbery and that the suspected burglar ran away when a security guard approached, firing shots as they retreated.
Just over an hour later, Mr. Manziaris’s house was shot at, but Mr. Dovigi denied that there was any connection, and also disputed the timing of it.
The Globe has since reported that there was a series of suspected arson attacks against GFL properties and equipment in Ontario this summer, and that a GFL office just north of Toronto was hit with 10 bullets overnight last week.
Toronto police believe that the office-building shooting is connected to the attacks on the executives’ homes, but on Thursday spokesperson Stephanie Sayer said detectives are not releasing any more information about the continuing investigation.
Mr. Dovigi told analysts Thursday that many of the company’s large institutional investors, including private equity giant BC Partners and Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan (OTTP), “have been with GFL since our early days and have done extensive due diligence on GFL, our leadership team and the industry.” These institutions have put their confidence in the company, “and we do not take that trust lightly.”
He also provided an update on the proposed sale of GFL’s environmental services division. First-round bids were due last week, Mr. Dovigi said, and the expected sale price is around $6-billion after tax, aligning with previous estimates that the company had provided to investors.
GFL says it plans on using $3.5-billion of the proceeds to pay down debt, and the remaining amount will be used to buy back shares and for general corporate purposes. One possibility is for shares of the two main backers, BC Partners and OTPP, to be repurchased.
GFL is selling the division because its $9.5-billion debt load started making rating agencies nervous as interest rates rose. The company’s share price struggled during the first half of the year, but has kept climbing since The Globe reported in June that GFL was weighing a privatization or a sale of the environmental services division.
GFL’s shares are now up 37 per cent in 2024.
Mr. Dovigi told investors Thursday that over the next year the company will focus on paying down debt, expanding its profit margins and buying more small-to-mid-size waste-management companies. The company has grown through continuous acquisitions over the years, and many of these deals were funded with debt.