BIOX joint venture to buy Houston, Texas biodiesel plant for $20M
by Cleantech Canada Staff
Canadian cleantech company partners with World Energy to acquire one of the largest biodiesel plants in North America
TORONTO—BIOX Corp. and Boston-based biodiesel firm World Energy are partnering to buy a 341-million-litre (90-million-gallon) biodiesel production facility in Houston, Texas.
Formerly known as Green Earth Fuels, the plant is the third-largest biodiesel facility in North America and is located within the Kinder Morgan Liquids terminal on the Houston Ship Channel. Valued at approximately US$20 million, the acquisition will add significantly to Biox’s production capacity. The Hamilton, Ont.-based company and World Fuels will each own a 50 per cent stake in the joint venture project, each contributing $10 million, the companies announced last week.
Biox CEO Alan Rickard said he expects the partnership and acquisition to significantly expand and diversify the company’s production.
“It is a large scale asset that is well positioned to supply biodiesel for compliance with the Federal Renewable Fuel Standard in the U.S. market,” he said “As we see the distribution of our products from our facilities in Ontario shifting from the U.S. market to fulfill the mandates under Ontario’s Greener Diesel initiative, this acquisition provides us with a strategically positioned production facility from which we can address the U.S. market in partnership with World Energy.”
The deal is the second major agreement Biox has reached in the past few weeks, announcing the $4.5 million purchase of the idle Sombra, Ont. biodiesel plant late last month.
The company plans to fund the acquisition through a $5 million bridge loan and a private placement
The newly-formed joint venture said acquisition of the Houston plant is scheduled to close by the end of June, while plant commissioning and start-up will begin in the third quarter of this year.
