Solterra Receives Capital Financing from Monroe Capital for Growth Initiatives

Solterra Recycling Solutions, an Ewing, N.J.-based provider of non-hazardous solid waste, organic waste, recyclables collection and hauling services, has completed a refinancing of its credit facility with Monroe Capital.

Solterra, formerly Central Jersey Waste and Recycling, is led by CEO Ed Apuzzi and COO Joe LoVerde, both of whom previously ran Progressive Waste Solutions’ Northeast operations. The duo teamed with Jeffrey Keenan of Atlanta-based private equity firm Roark Capital Group to acquire Central Jersey in 2014, and now they are in the process of rebranding and changing the license name over to Solterra as they prepare for the company’s growth initiatives.

Monroe Capital is a Chicago-based independent finance company that provides unitranche financing for companies in the middle market, which Monroe defines as companies that post between $3 to $30 million in EBITDA and have revenues greater than $20 million.

“Monroe Capital understands our base business, and we are excited to be partners with them in this refinancing as we continue our growth strategy,” says Apuzzi. “That growth strategy in the N.J. and Philadelphia area primarily revolves around continued organic growth and additional acquisition growth. We have identified a number of companies that we think would fit in nicely and support our base business. We hope to buy these tucking and platform acquisitions at reasonable multiples with Monroe supporting us on the debt side and Roark supporting us on the equity side.”

Prior to closing the refinancing deal in late April 2016, Solterra and Monroe had several in-person meetings and conference calls about the refinancing specifics. The strong relationship that they built in a relatively short period of time and Monroe’s competitive offer led to Solterra moving forward with Monroe as its refinancing partner.

“We will be providing capital to Solterra to support its acquisition and growth initiatives,” says Monroe Capital Managing Director and Principal Tom Aronson. “Solterra has a facility in place that will support and assist the company while it acquires different businesses and continues organic growth.”

Monroe provides non-bank financing to both private equity-sponsored business and non-sponsored businesses for a number of different things, such as acquisitions, shareholder distributions, dividends and capital expenditures. The company has a total of approximately $3.5 billion assets under management, which includes pockets of capital from SBIC funds, BDC funds and other institutional funds.

Currently, Solterra serves more than 30 municipalities, 400,000 residential households and 2,000 commercial customers in central and north N.J. and the Philadelphia metropolitan area, and the company’s new credit facility will allow them to increase organic growth, new collection contract awards and acquisitions.