Milestone Environmental Services has six slurry injection and landfill locations in the Midland and Delaware Basins under new ownership.
SK Capital Partners has completed its acquisition of Milestone, partnering with Milestone President and CEO Gabriel Rio to take control of the Houston-based company.
“Milestone was at a turning point,” explained Rio, who will maintain his role as president and CEO and significant ownership of the company.
“We’ve really built waste management into a leading position and we’re accelerating in the carbon capture and sequestration space,” he explained in a phone call with the Reporter-Telegram. “We are also working to expand our waste offerings to other types of industries.”
Other types of industries include heavy industry, refineries and chemical manufacturers, he said.
These growth ambitions, coupled with Milestone’s desire for access to more capital and nine years of ownership from fellow private equity firm Amberjack Capital Partners, meant that the company was looking for a new partnership.
“The great thing about SK Capital is that they are investing with our strategy and vision behind them,” Rio said.
Rio said while retaining the Milestone team, the company will be able to leverage SK’s expertise and infrastructure, as well as its long track record of helping other companies achieve “rapid growth.”
Jack Norris, managing director of SK Capital, said his New York-based firm is focused on sustainability themes and takes that approach to its portfolio companies.
In a phone interview with the Reporter-Telegram, he pointed to one of his portfolio companies, Ecopol, which makes biodegradable films and delivery systems used in a growing number of dishwashers and detergent pods. Environmental services are also something to consider.
“What I like about Milestone is that they are providing a valuable service to an industry that has an environmental footprint. We capture that waste into a slurry well and sequester the associated carbon. “We like what we do and will continue to do our core business,” he said.
Added to that was Milestone’s ability to make multi-year investments in carbon capture and sequestration and take it to the next level, Norris continued. He cited Milestone’s just-announced plans for a CCS hub in the Midland Basin and a larger hub planned for the Delaware Basin. The company also works with customers who want to reduce their environmental footprint and carbon intensity amid increasingly stringent regulations and corporate obligations to reduce or eliminate flaring.
“We think we can move towards the milestone,” he said. “Sustainability is an increasingly important factor today, and carbon management is a big component of sustainability.”
