OSI Environmental, an environmental services firm based in Eveleth, Minnesota, recently announced via its website it’s part of GFL Environmental Services. The deal is among the first for GFL’s recently spun off division, which is now controlled by private partners.
GFL executives did not respond to a request for comment. Nor did Apollo Global Management, whose affiliate funds acquired the GFL environmental services division with investment firm BC Partners. That deal was announced in January and the transition was complete in March.
OSI has 10 branch locations across Minnesota, Wisconsin, Indiana and Oklahoma. Founded in 1988, it offers used oil recycling, roll-off services, emergency spill response, hazardous waste management and other related services. The company has a fleet of more than 100 vehicles, according to federal records.
GFL’s environmental services division was created in 2022 when the company combined its existing liquid waste and soil remediation businesses. At the time, CFO Luke Pelosi estimated the division would reach $1 billion in annual revenue in 2022. In the first quarter of this year, the division generated $237 million in revenue, GFL reported.
The deal GFL made in January to spin off its environmental services netted the company approximately $5.6 billion. It also returned the assets to private ownership for the first time since GFL went public in March 2020.
As part of the deal, GFL retains a 44% stake in the division and has the ability to reacquire it in five years. As such, the company’s executives maintain insight into the business.
Speaking at the investor summit at WasteExpo 2025 in Las Vegas, CEO Patrick Dovigi said he spends “no more or less” time with the asset than he did pre-divestment. He said leaders expect to run the environmental services business with 5.5 to 6.0-times leverage, a higher debt burden than GFL can manage as a publicly traded company without investor scrutiny.
Dovigi said the environmental services businesses should annually bring in acquisitions that net roughly $35 million to $40 million in earnings before income, taxes, depreciation and amortization, as well as an organic growth rate in the “mid-to-high single digits.”
“It's running like a typical private equity business that we ran for 13, 14 years,” Dovigi said.
Growth in the environmental services division was limited somewhat prior to this year’s deal, Pelosi said at the investor summit. He noted deals in the space had to compete with solid waste deals for time and corporate resources within GFL.
“They weren't doing as much as they could have it's otherwise done. Now that it’s on its standalone basis, we have that opportunity,” Pelosi said.
The environmental services sector remains a “key target for capital deployment through 2025,” according to financial advisory firm Houlihan Lokey. Deals involving large publicly traded waste companies looking for growth opportunities continue, including Republic Services’ acquisition of Shamrock Environmental in the first quarter of this year.
Disclosure: Informa, which owns a controlling stake in Informa TechTarget, the publisher behind Waste Dive, is also the owner of WasteExpo. Informa has no influence over Waste Dive’s coverage.
