Ensus Sold To Germans

Posted by Nogger - a legend in his own mind at 10:31 | Categorized as

22/07/13 -- Breaking news this morning is that stop-start UK bioethanol business Ensus has been sold for a knock-down price to German firm CropEnergies AG, a member of the Südzucker Group, the largest sugar producer in Europe.

CropEnergies say that they plan to invest more than GBP50 million to improve the competitiveness of the plant.

The acquisition was said to have been completed on Friday "by a contribution in kind in return for the issuance of 2.25 million new CropEnergies shares. The issuing price per share is EUR5.98 (GBP5.15), ex dividend, corresponding to a total value of EUR13.5 million (around GBP11.6 million)."

CropEnergies already operates bioethanol production plants in Germany, Belgium and France. They say that the move will potentially increase its annual production capacity of bioethanol by 50% to more than 1.2 million cubic metres.

Conceptualised in heady days of 2006, the plant was said to have been built for a total cost of GBP250 million, although subsequent additional expenditure may have taken that figure as high as GBP300 million according to some estimates.