Evry (France), December 4th 2013 – Global Bioenergies was awarded the EnterNext Prize for the most successful financial operation of the year at the third annual French Stock market conference, organized Wednesday December 4th in Paris by NYSE Euronext.
The Jury rewarded Global Bioenergies for its successful capital increase of 23 million euro closed mid-July 2013, and jointly led by Gilbert Dupont and Oddo. The operation was oversubscribed and brought together numerous private investors and over forty international institutional investors (from France, several European countries and the USA). Cristal Union, the second largest French sugar producer, strongly reinforced its participation in Global Bioenergies’ capital. Several entities of CM-CIC Capital Finance subscribed to the operation for a total of over 8 million euros. Financing two industrial pilots The operation’s proceeds will primarily be used to finance the industrialization of the isobutene bio-production process. Full-scale exploitation of this process is expected as early as 2017 and will allow the production of gasoline, jet-fuel, diesel, plastics and elastomers from renewable resources. The processes developed by Global Bioenergies indeed have the ability to convert plant-derived resources into hydrocarbons, a group of compounds that are currently derived exclusively from fossil oil. Marc Delcourt, CEO of Global Bioenergies, declares: “We now have all the resources to bring this process to industrial maturity thanks to the success of the capital increase and the support of the French and German governments”. Global Bioenergies indeed announced in June 2013 the launch of a first industrial pilot on the Pomacle-Bazancourt agro-industrial site in France where Cristal Union produces sugar and ethanol. This first pilot will be built as part of a consortium that regroups Arkema and the CNRS. It is supported by a 5.2 million euro financing received from the Investissements d’Avenir, a governmental program led by the French Prime Minister. More recently, the Company has announced having secured a 5.7 million euro grant from the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research to install a second industrial pilot on the Leuna refinery close to Leipzig in Germany.
About GLOBAL BIOENERGIES
Global Bioenergies is one of the few companies worldwide, and the only one in Europe, that is developing a process to convert renewable resources into hydrocarbons through fermentation. The Company initially focused its efforts on the production of isobutene, one of the most important petrochemical building blocks that can be converted into fuels, plastics, organic glass and elastomers. Global Bioenergies continues to improve the yield of its process and is actively entering the industrial pilot testing phase. The company recently replicated this success to propylene and butadiene and is also looking to continue with other members of the gaseous olefins family, key molecules at the heart of petrochemical industry. Global Bioenergies is listed on NYSE Alternext Paris (FR0011052257 – ALGBE).