DCC, the international sales, marketing and business support services group, has agreed to sell its Environmental division to Exponent, a private equity firm.
In a statement, the company said the deal is worth £219m, on a debt-free, cash-free basis.
DCC's environmental division comprises the British businesses, William Tracey Group, Oakwood Fuels and Wastecycle and its Irish business, Enva.
The company said the deal is expected to complete in the quarter to 30 June 2017 and requires competition clearance from the Competition Authority here.
The business treats and recycles non-hazardous and hazardous waste in Ireland and the UK.
In the year ended 31 March 2016, DCC Environmental reported revenue of £153.5m and operating profit of £15.2m.
The division represented about 5% of the the group's operating profit in the year to March 2016.
"The disposal of the Environmental division brings sharpened strategic focus to the group and will allow DCC to concentrate fully on growing and developing the Energy, Healthcare and Technology divisions where DCC has been actively deploying development capital in recent years," DCC's CEO Tommy Breen said.
Earlier, DCC said that its chief executive Tommy Breen has decided to retire from the company.
Mr Breen, who has been CEO since 2008, has been with DCC for over 30 years. He will step down after the company's AGM in July.
Mr Breen will be succeeded by Donal Murphy, executive director and managing director of DCC Energy, DCC's largest division.
Donal Murphy joined DCC in 1998 and has held a number of senior leadership roles across the group.
Incoming CEO Murphy has led the energy business, which accounts for about 68% of DCC's profit, for eleven years.
During that time the unit's profit has grown by more than 400% and it has expanded into 11 markets through about 125 acquisitions worth £1.4 billion in total.
Dublin headquartered and London-listed, DCC's activities range from distributing oil to making Body Shop's body butters and distributing Xbox to retailers Argos and Amazon.
The company also said today that it has agreed a deal to buy Shell's LPG business in Hong Kong and Macau for an enterprise value of £120m.
It said the deal is consistent with DCC Energy's ambition to build a substantial presence in the LPG market.
Shell HK&M is one of the leading LPG sales and marketing businesses in Hong Kong and Macau, where it has been selling LPG for almost 60 years.
It provides LPG in bulk, cylinder and autogas formats to domestic, commercial and industrial customers.
DCC has been seeking opportunities to purchase distribution and market assets from oil majors as they slim down their portfolio to ride out an oil price slump, and in February agreed to buy the retail petrol station network of ExxonMobil's Norwegian unit.
DCC, which has in the past bought assets from oil companies such as Chevron and Total, said the Shell purchase was expected to complete before the end of its financial year on March 31 and would give it one of the leading LPG businesses in Hong Kong and the market leader in Macau.
Following the completion of the deal, the business will continue to operate under the Shell brand in both Hong Kong and Macau, based on a long-term brand licence agreement, the Dublin-based company said in a statement.
"The acquisition represents a further strengthening of our relationship with Shell and gives DCC a strong market position in Hong Kong and Macau. It is also DCC's first material step in building its business outside of Europe and gives DCC a platform for development in the growing LPG market in Asia," the company stated.
Meanwhile, the company also released a trading statement today which said that its performance since February has been in line with expectations.
It said it expects that both operating profit and adjusted earnings per share for the year to March 2017 will be "significantly" ahead of the previous year and in line with current market expectations.
