From its founding in Chicago in 1996, Lincoln International has grown into a global mid-market investment bank serving a variety of industries and employing more than 200 investment bankers across 12 offices in 10 countries. In 2011, Lincoln International completed more than 100 M&A (mergers and acquisitions), capital raising, restructuring and other advisory transactions worldwide.

Saurin Mehta, who works for Lincoln International’s Environmental Services Group out of Chicago, has been with the company since 2000. He says roughly 75 percent of what Lincoln International does is M&A advisory services, 90 percent of which is advising sellers. “Our client base today includes private equity groups, publicly traded companies and private businesses,” Mehta says. “I sit in our business services group, of which environmental services is one critical sub-sector; we’ve done a number of mergers and acquisitions in that space, specifically in recycling.”

Mehta speaks with Recycling Today’s Brian Taylor about how the recycling sector is ripe for M&A activity and provides his advice for business owners who may be considering selling.

Recycling Today (RT): Does Lincoln International view recycling as an industry sector likely to experience considerable M&A activity?

Saurin Mehta (SM): We really do think so. Look at 2006 and 2007, [when there was] nice growth and 130 deals per year getting done. That number dropped in 2009, but is rising back from 75 to 95 deals, specifically within the recycling sector. We’ve seen a nice rebound.