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A-Gas International
A-Gas operates the largest independent refrigerant recovery and reclamation network, serving the global HVAC industry from Bristol, UK.
A-Gas International
A-Gas was founded in 1993 in Bristol, United Kingdom, and has grown through successive acquisitions and greenfield facilities into a vertically integrated environmental services and refrigerant supply business. The company operates across the entire gas lifecycle: it recovers used refrigerants, reclaims them to industry-grade purity, manages end-of-life destruction of high-global-warming-potential gases, and distributes both reclaimed and newly manufactured refrigerant products. Regulatory bans on ozone-depleting and high-GWP substances under the Montreal Protocol and its Kigali Amendment have shaped a business where compliance creates supply scarcity, and A-Gas's reclamation volumes serve as a regulated raw material stream unavailable to downstream-only distributors. The company's strategy is built on three interlocking asset classes: refrigerant reclamation facilities, gas destruction units, and a global logistics network for pressurised gases. A-Gas deploys capital into physical plant — for example, its Bowling Green, Ohio reclamation centre and its separate destruction facility — rather than financial instruments. It acts as a consolidator in a fragmented industry, acquiring smaller refrigerant distributors and reclamation operators in North America, Europe, Africa and Asia-Pacific. The geographic footprint now includes the UK, United States, Australia, South Africa and Singapore. In 2017, the business was acquired by TPG through its TPG Rise Climate strategy, signalling the firm's transition from family or founder ownership to institutional backing aligned with environmental services growth. The total scale of the company's operations is typically measured in throughput — millions of pounds of reclaimed refrigerant per year — rather than headline assets under management. A-Gas is not a fund manager and does not publicly disclose an AUM figure. It operates the Rapid Recovery service across the US, a direct-to-tradespeople cylinder exchange programme that captures used refrigerant from HVAC services in the field, feeding the company's own reclaim plants. In January 2024, A-Gas announced the acquisition of Diversified Pure Chem, a Texas-based refrigerant recovery and reclamation company, further consolidating its North American reclamation footprint. A-Gas occupies a structural position where environmental regulation functions as a moat. Refrigerant phase-down schedules create mandatory retirement of virgin HFC production capacity, while reclaimed refrigerant is exempt from quota systems under the Kigali Amendment. This means the company's reclamation volumes are measured and credited against national consumption limits, giving reclaimed product a regulatory advantage that virgin-only competitors cannot replicate. The company is not a technology startup inventing new refrigerants — it is an operations-heavy environmental services business that owns the circular-economy infrastructure regulatory compliance obligates the industry to use.
General information
Firm type
Asset Manager
Year founded
1993
AUM
Undisclosed
Location
Region
Europe
Country
United Kingdom
City
Bristol
Corporate office
Bristol, United Kingdom
Additional offices
Bowling Green, Ohio, United States · Melbourne, Australia · Cape Town, South Africa · Singapore
Principals
Jack Govers
Chief Executive Officer
Sector focus
Frequently asked questions
What does A-Gas actually do?
A-Gas recovers, reclaims, and destroys refrigerant gases used in air conditioning, refrigeration and industrial cooling. It operates physical reclamation and destruction facilities across the UK, United States, Australia, South Africa and Singapore, and sells both reclaimed and virgin refrigerants into regulated markets. The company functions more like an environmental services infrastructure operator than a conventional chemical distributor.
Who owns A-Gas?
TPG acquired A-Gas in 2017 through its TPG Rise Climate impact investing strategy. Before that, the company was majority-owned by private equity firm LDC. A-Gas was originally founded in 1993 in Bristol, UK, and has not been a founder-owned business since the initial institutional acquisitions in the 2010s.
How does regulation benefit A-Gas's business model?
Under the Kigali Amendment to the Montreal Protocol, countries phase down virgin HFC production through quotas, creating scarcity. Reclaimed refrigerant is exempt from these quotas, giving A-Gas a structurally advantaged supply of product that competitors without reclamation capacity cannot access. The company essentially runs a regulatory arbitrage where the same rules that restrict competitors generate inventory for its reclaim operations.
Is A-Gas a fund or an operating company accessible to institutional allocators?
A-Gas is an operating company, not a fund. It does not raise external LP capital directly. Institutional exposure has historically come through the private equity ownership — first via LDC, and since 2017 through TPG Rise Climate, which deployed capital from its impact-oriented fund vehicles. Allocators seeking exposure would look to TPG's climate funds rather than investing in A-Gas directly.
What is the competitive moat in refrigerant reclamation?
The moat is largely physical and regulatory: reclamation requires permitted, capital-intensive facilities capable of processing gases to an industry purity standard, plus a collection network dense enough to capture used refrigerant from HVAC contractors before it is vented. Building a competing network across multiple continents would require long permitting timelines, significant capex, and a recovery logistics operation. A-Gas has built this over three decades and continues to consolidate smaller operators.
Where does A-Gas operate geographically?
A-Gas has operational facilities and sales offices in the United Kingdom (Bristol, headquarters), the United States (Bowling Green, Ohio, plus a destruction facility and the Rapid Recovery service network), Australia (Melbourne), South Africa (Cape Town), and Singapore. Its US presence is the largest market by volume, driven by the scale of the American HVAC and automotive air conditioning aftermarket.
What is the Rapid Recovery programme?
Rapid Recovery is A-Gas's US-based direct-to-tradespeople refrigerant exchange service. HVAC technicians return used refrigerant cylinders to A-Gas via a logistics network that feeds the Bowling Green reclamation plant. The programme gives A-Gas a downstream collection channel that bypasses wholesale distributors, securing used-refrigerant volume that becomes future reclaimed product inventory.
Profile maintained by Altss using OSINT (open-source intelligence), regulatory filings, licensed data partners, and verified direct submissions. Read the methodology. Last updated: . Continuous refresh with full update cycles at least every 30 days.
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