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<strong>March</strong> <strong>2016</strong> THE <strong>Reader</strong> • 11<br />
Chiquita Canyon parent seeks merger<br />
By Brandon Lowrey<br />
Staff Writer<br />
The Texas-based company that owns<br />
the Chiquita Canyon Landfill is seeking<br />
Canadian citizenship. Waste Connections<br />
Inc. is asking for shareholder and governmental<br />
approval to merge with Canadian<br />
waste hauler Progressive Waste Solutions<br />
Ltd. in an all-stock deal that would leave<br />
Waste Connections shareholders with 70<br />
percent of the combined company, and five of<br />
seven seats on the board.<br />
The proposed deal is structured as a reverse<br />
merger. This means that on paper, Progressive<br />
Waste is acquiring Waste<br />
Connections. But Waste Connections shareholders<br />
and executives will be in charge of<br />
the combined company (which will, of<br />
course, be named “Waste Connections Inc.”)<br />
The move would grow Waste Connections<br />
in a big way, allowing it to take over Progressive<br />
Waste’s operations in 14 states and six<br />
Canadian provinces. The combined company<br />
would have projected revenue of $4.1 billion<br />
and maintain its U.S. headquarters in The<br />
Woodlands, Texas, and its Canadian headquarters<br />
in Ontario, Canada, according to<br />
forms filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange<br />
Commission.<br />
“Under our leadership, we believe we can<br />
instill the corporate culture, safety focus, operational<br />
excellence and accountability that<br />
have served us so well and which we believe<br />
are necessary for long-term success within<br />
Progressive Waste's complementary markets.<br />
These improvements, together with expected<br />
immediate synergies and other cash<br />
flow benefits, should accelerate value creation<br />
for both companies' shareholders,”<br />
Waste Connections CEO Ronald J. Mittelstaedt<br />
said in a prepared statement about the<br />
proposed merger.<br />
“Put simply, we believe this combination<br />
creates a company uniquely positioned with<br />
industry-leading operating and free cash flow<br />
margins, together with the balance sheet<br />
strength, to drive further growth and increase<br />
the return of capital to our shareholders."<br />
Its service area is not the only thing that<br />
Waste Connections wants to expand. The<br />
company has been fighting to keep the Chiquita<br />
Canyon Landfill operating until 2037,<br />
which would grow it out significantly and<br />
double the amount of trash it can take in,<br />
much to the chagrin of local environmental<br />
groups.<br />
Those groups, including Santa Clarita Organization<br />
for Planning and the Environment,<br />
Citizens for Chiquita Canyon Landfill<br />
Compliance and other Val Verde residents<br />
lodged a complaint with the county in June,<br />
alleging that the county deprived Spanishspeaking<br />
residents of a chance to participate<br />
in the approval process by withholding Spanish<br />
translations of documents related to the<br />
proposed expansion project. County officials<br />
and the landfill owners denied those allegations.<br />
The groups want the 639-acre landfill to<br />
close by 2019 or when it reaches 23 million<br />
tons of trash, under a 1997 agreement between<br />
the unincorporated community of Val<br />
Verde and the landfill's previous owner, The<br />
Newhall Land and Farming Co. The ink dried<br />
on that deal long before Waste Connections<br />
bought the landfill in 2009, and the groups<br />
argue that the agreement is still binding.<br />
Waste Connections now wants to expand<br />
the landfill’s footprint from 257 acres to 400,<br />
and double its trash intake to 12,000 tons per<br />
day.<br />
Chiquita Canyon had previously been expanded<br />
in the late 1990s. Waste Connections<br />
won an expansion and 30-year extension for<br />
its Lancaster landfill in December 2011.<br />
The merger would not affect the company’s<br />
plans for the landfill, said Chiquita<br />
Canyon District Manager Steve Cassulo.<br />
“It is business as usual,” he said. R<br />
Hilton to build hotel in Santa Clarita<br />
hilton hotels corporation will build a 107 room hotel under its brand of extended-stay homewood Suites hotels<br />
in Santa Clarita The hotel will be built between West Rye Canyon Road and Vanderbilt Way at the edge of<br />
the Valencia industrial Center next to embassy Suites and The Courtyard. Construction is expected to start<br />
next month with a completion date in July 2017.