AI assistant
METabolic EXplorer — Capital/Financing Update 2009
Mar 10, 2009
1519_rns_2009-03-10_a668ea44-230f-4e7a-85e6-bf6642987255.pdf
Capital/Financing Update
Open in viewerOpens in your device viewer
METabolic EXplorer achieves a key process industrialization milestone and launches construction of its industrial pilot plant
Clermont-Ferrand, March 10, 2009. – METabolic EXplorer, the green chemistry company specializing in the development of bioprocesses for the production of chemical compounds used in a wide range of everyday products (paints, solvents, animal feed supplements, adhesives, textile fibres, resorbable surgical thread, etc.), today announced the achievement of a key milestone concerning the resources allocated to the future industrialization of its processes.
In line with the technology validation schedule set out in the company's business plan, METabolic EXplorer will acquire an industrial pilot plant by the end of this year. More precisely, a purification unit will be added to the fermentation pilot commissioned in late 2007. The combined fermentation and purification units will thus constitute the industrial pilot plant announced at the time of the company's initial public offering (IPO).
This is an important step because the industrial pilot plant will enable process validation (via the continuous production of hundreds of kilos of compound) and determination of the cost price of each fermentation and purification step (and thus the final, overall cost price). It will allow extrapolation of finalized process books to the industrial scale and will facilitate forecasts for kilotonne manufacturing.
By way of an illustration of METabolic Explorer's decisive entry into the process industrialization phase, all five portfolio processes (three in-house processes and two in co-development) are all currently at the fermentation pre-pilot stage (the next step being purification).
Of the company's three proprietary processes, the first to enter into the industrial pilot stage is for production of PDO (1,3-propanediol) - an important feedstock in the manufacture of textile fibres, coatings, carpeting, thermoplastic films and coolants. METabolic EXplorer has stated its total target market as being worth \$14 billion, with PDO alone accounting for \$3.5 billion*.
Construction and finalization of the industrial pilot plant will require an investment of around €10 million, in line with the estimates set at the time of the company's IPO.
Olivier Nore (Industrialization Director) stated:
"This milestone is important for the company because it heralds the finalization of our process book - a "user guide" which defines all the data, parameters and equipments needed to produce chemical compounds on the industrial scale from renewable feedstocks. The process book also specifies the investment and production costs for a unit with an annual output of between 50 and 100 kilotonnes."
* Market estimates: ICIS Chemical Business and ICIS Pricing, December 2007 / Feedinfonews, December 2007
-END-
About METabolic EXplorer - www.metabolic-explorer.com
METabolic EXplorer is a biological chemistry company which was created in 1999. The company's goal is to assist industrial manufacturing businesses to change the way they produce many everyday goods through novel production methods that do not rely on increasingly scarce oil-based petrochemical feedstocks. METabolic EXplorer unique technical expertise provides industrial producers with attractive alternatives to today's expensive petrochemical processes by enabling them to use a range of renewable and sustainable raw materials. METabolic EXplorer is able to optimize the production yield of commercially important chemical intermediates from non-pathogenic bacteria by leveraging on the proven principle of industrial fermentation. These chemical intermediates are incorporated into the production of chemical compounds used in a wide range of everyday products paints, solvents, adhesives, textile fibres, surgical thread and animal feed.
METabolic EXplorer is currently focusing its alternative biological solution (implemented via the development of its renewable fermentation-based bioprocesses) on the production of 5 products that have a combined end market value estimated at \$14 billion annually. The Company plans to use its unique technology for the production of these 5 products to bring them to market via non-exclusive industrial alliances and joint-ventures with chemical companies and renewable feedstock providers worldwide.
METabolic EXplorer is based in Clermont-Ferrand, France and is listed on NYSE EURONEXT PARIS (EURONEXT C, METEX).
For further information, please contact:
Press contacts:
ATTITUDE Corporate
Eric de Lambert-Reiner E-mail: [email protected] Tel: +33 (0)1 49 70 43 42 / +33 (0)6 25 29 06 58
Emmanuelle Lapeyre E-mail: [email protected] Tel: +33 (0)1 49 70 43 43 / +33 (0)6 15 88 62 09
Financial contacts:
METabolic EXplorer S.A.
Paul Michalet, Chief Financial Officer Biopôle Clermont-Limagne
63360 Saint-Beauzire - FRANCE -
Tel: +33 (0)4 73 33 43 00 Fax: +33 (0)4 73 33 43 01 Email: [email protected]
Actus Finance
Jérôme Fabreguettes-Leib Tel: +33 (0)1 77 35 04 36 Email : [email protected]
This communication includes forward looking information which is subject to risks and uncertainties. The potential development of Company could be substantially different from that anticipated in this press release because of the various risk factors which are described in Company's Listing Prospectus.