Safety-Kleen Going Public via IPO

Safety-Kleen Inc. looks like it will soon be public. The environmental services outfit has filed to sell up to $400 million in initial public offering proceeds. It will be a New York Stock Exchange listing under the stock ticker SK when it begins trading.

It is important to note that a private equity group will be the selling holder, and the company will not receive any proceeds from the sale of shares by the selling stockholders. Those holders are now listed as Highland Capital Management, Contrarian Capital Management, J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. (NYSE: JPM) and GSC Acquisition Holdings LLC.

Safety-Kleen, and aspects of its business, has been around the block before with private equity firms, as you can tell by its owners. Credit Suisse Securities (USA) and Morgan Stanley & Co. have been tabbed as the joint book-running managers for the offering.

Safety-Kleen calls itself “a leading provider of environmental services to commercial, industrial and automotive customers, and the largest re-refiner of used oil and provider of parts cleaning services in North America.” The company claims some 4,200 employees, serving more than 200,000 customer locations in the United States, Canada and Puerto Rico.

The company has managed to maintain growth as 2009 sales were $987.986 million, followed by $1.074 billion in 2010 and $1.284 billion in 2012. Net income has grown as well, with a $43 million loss maturing to a $135 million net profit in 2011. Sales and profitability also have grown so far in the first half of 2012.

JON C. OGG