Credit funds rummage through skip bin for Bingo debt

Bingo Industries is a provider of waste management and skip bins.

Macquarie faces pressure to stand behind Bingo Industries should its debt continue to be sold to its secondary lenders.

So far Macquarie, which purchased Bingo Industries in 2021 for $2.6bn, has been very supportive of the waste management and skip bin provider.

Bingo is believed to have too much debt, and the problem with that is that it means it does not have the funds it needs to invest for growth.

Yet more debt trading in Bingo, of which there has been evidence of late, will place further pressure on Macquarie.

The Australian financial powerhouse is increasingly creating competition for the top four banks in the mortgage and credit card space.

And with Macquarie hoping to be the country’s fifth largest bank, it will want its conduct around special situations like Bingo to be seen as beyond reproach.

DataRoom reported in 2022 that its loans were selling at between 80c and 90c in the dollar, and credit agencies flagged some concerns.

The face value of the loans are understood to be worth about $900m.

Bingo’s Eastern Creek Landfill Facility in western Sydney took longer to build than anticipated, sources say, in what has been a hindrance to the company.

Bingo in 2022 pleaded guilty to criminal cartel offences relating to price fixing, following an investigation by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission.

Bingo’s former managing director and major shareholder, Daniel Tartak, was also charged with two criminal cartel offences.

Mr Tartak’s father, Tony, built a waste business empire that began with spending almost $1m buying a four-skip truck business.

The business was founded by the Tartak family in 2005 and listed in 2017 with a $628m market value priced at $1.80 a share, almost half the $3.45 per share that Macquarie paid in 2021.

But Bingo by that time had purchased rival Dial A Dump for $578m in 2018.

Its operations include skip bin hire, commercial services and recycling centres, and it owns and operates more than 330 rubbish trucks, skips and other waste management equipment.