Cheung Kong Holdings Ltd, owned by billionaire Li Ka Shing, and their partners have forged an agreement to purchase Afvalverwerking BV for Eur943.7 million or US$1.3 billion. The group would be purchasing the shareholdings from Van Gansewinkel Groep BV to gain a foothold into waste processing in Europe.

Cheung Kong Holdings' partners are Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings Ltd, Li Ka Shing Foundation Ltd. and Power Assets Holdings Ltd. The statement identified the owners of Van Gansewinkel as CVC Capital Partners Ltd and KKR & Co.

This is the second waste treatment deal that Cheung Kong had formalized ths year. The previous deal was with the purchase of EnviroWaste of New Zealand worth NZ$501 million or US$405 million. With this European based purchase, the company assumes the largest waste treatment capacity in the continent.

According to the Managing Director of Cheung Kong Infrastructure, "The company is making good inroads in the area of waste management. With waste treatment being an imminentn issue in most places around the world, we see good growth potential in this business."