When Highstar Capital pushed $1.91 billion to the center of the table, winning a months-long auction for Veolia ES Solid Waste Inc, the move almost certainly meant another hand eventually will be dealt.

The New York-based private equity firm has already been in the waste industry sector ince 2006 before deciding to bet nearly $2 billion more on the sector.

But private equity firms also are known for putting their money to work in a company for a finite period of time before moving on. The eventual exit strategy could involve taking the company public.

But that will be then, and this is now.

That means work is currently under way to close the Veolia ES Solid Waste deal and merge that company with Highstar Capital’s existing solid waste companies – Advanced Disposal Services Inc. and Interstate Waste Services Inc. – into one firm with about $1.4 billion in annual revenue.

The emerging company, to retain the Advanced Disposal name, will be the largest privately held solid waste management company in the land and the fifth-largest such company overall.

“We are owned by a private equity firm. Private equity firms have an investment horizon,” Advanced Disposal CEO Charlie Appleby said. “They’ve been a great equity partner for us for the past six years. They certainly considered, ‘is this the appropriate time to exit the industry space?’ And based on the opportunity with the Veolia combination with us, I guess they are more than doubling down.”

But the fact remains that at some point Highstar Capital will look to cash in on its investments.

“Our board of directors will obviously consider all of the potential exit strategies and IPO is obviously one of them,” he said.

Hamzah Mazari is a stock analyst for Credit Suisse and follows the solid waste management sector, and he sees an IPO as a logical end game for Highstar Capital.

“We think that they are going to essentially try to grow the business organically and then we think eventually, we won’t be surprised if you see this company come public,” Mazari said.

“Right now, waste volumes have not recovered; pricing is under pressure for the entire sector because we are in a volumeless recovery,” he said. “And so right now I think what Highstar is going to do, they are going to try to optimize the operations, cut costs, try to grow organically, gain share.”

“And then when the fundamentals in the waste business turn – maybe you get construction improvement, maybe you get the commercial business improvement – then I think they go out and try to just bring the company public,” Mazari said.

The new, larger Advanced Disposal will stretch from Minnesota to Florida and up into the Northeast. The combined operation will have about 5,400 employees, 3,000 trucks, 47 landfills and 92 transfer stations.

“We’ll have a pretty robust eastern United States presence. So by virtue of the size alone, that certainly limits the opportunities for our equity partners to exit,” Appleby said.

Waste Management Inc. and Republic Services Inc., the nation’s two largest solid waste management companies, will have too much market overlap with Advanced Disposal. That would make an acquisition from an antitrust perspective very difficult, Appleby said.

And other potential acquirers could have difficulty writing a big enough check to pay for the company.

Mazari does not believe an IPO would come right away. “I don’t think it’s going to be in the short- or near-term. I think this will be more of a 2015 event, 2014 event. Somewhere in that timeframe,” he said.