£850,000 share placing to boost oil plans for Viridas
VIRIDAS, the Yorkshire firm which is developing biodiesel from rainforests in Brazil, today announced a £850,000 share placing to accelerate its plans.
The Leeds-based AIM-listed company said the placing formed part of a planned series of placings, with funds primarily being used to establish a new “administrative organisation” in Salvador, Brazil.
The cash will also be invested in the acquisition and planting of up to 250 hectares of jatropha plant, an inedible plant which grows in Brazil, which Viridas plans to produce oil from.
Viridas has also appointed Martin Brink as managing director and David Thompson as finance director with immediate effect.
Stanley Wootliff, chairman of Viridas, said: “The placing provides Viridas with the additional working capital to move to the next stage of its development programme and to take advantage of the growing EU demand for compliant sustainable biodiesel and biomass sourced from a dedicated energy crop.
“With a strong team and partnerships in place this funding will enable us to build a business with sustainability at its core while building value for our shareholders.”
Viridas’s “base farm” plantation, in the state of Bahia, Brazil, is set to produce 60,000 tonnes of crude jatropha oil and 240,000 tonnes of biomass annually.
The jatropha oil will be used for transport and the biomass for electricity generation.
Viridas hopes the plantation will house a nursery for the production of seedlings to be used for the planting out of up to 30,000 hectares, establish a training ground for staff, a base for farm machinery, and a pilot plant to carry out research and development on jatropha plant sciences.
The placing will see 8.5m new ordinary shares placed at 10p each.
The new ordinary shares will represent 25.86% of the enlarged issued share capital of Viridas and are expected to be admitted to trading on AIM tomorrow.
The Yorkshire company has previously put a team in place to fully develop the jatropha project, including INEOS, the world’s third largest chemicals company & Cazenave, a leading South American agribusiness management and consulting company.
A 10 year jatropha oil supply and development agreement has been put in place with INEOS.
The group used to be known as Caldwell Investments and had a diverse range of businesses, including a German underwear business and another making the Nina Clip to attach parasols to baby buggies.
