Cleanaway says a $501 million ‘Plan B’ acquisition of just the Sydney assets of French group Suez will benefit from the infrastructure boom, after a bigger $2.5 billion takeover of the entire Suez Australia business was terminated late on Monday.

Australia’s largest waste management group still needs clearance from the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission for the smaller fallback deal to proceed, in an industry where the competition regulator is closely scrutinising every move by the large players.