BIOX Corporation (TSX: BX) and World Energy, today announced a 50/50 joint venture to acquire and operate a 90 million U.S. gallon (USG) (341 million litre) biodiesel production facility in Houston, Texas. Each company has committed US$10 million to the World Energy BIOX Biofuels joint venture.
The facility, formerly known as Green Earth Fuels, is located within the Kinder Morgan Liquids terminal on the Houston Ship Channel and is the third largest biodiesel production facility in North America. The plant acquisition is scheduled to close by the end of June. Plant commissioning and start-up will ramp up over the third quarter of the year.
"This joint venture with World Energy and the acquisition of a 90 million USG facility provide BIOX an opportunity to significantly expand and diversify our production capacity in combination with a high quality partner. 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," said Alan Rickard, Chief Executive Officer of BIOX. "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. World Energy's approach to sales & marketing is aligned with ours, as trusted producers and marketers that leverage their expertise, experience and relationships in the industry to provide optimal value to clients."
"World Energy and BIOX have been biodiesel industry pioneers dating from the very beginnings of the industry," said Gene Gebolys, Chief Executive Officer of World Energy. "This venture enables us to lever our collective strengths to serve customers better than ever before with unparalleled logistical access by rail, truck, barge, ship, and pipeline to the biggest biofuels markets in the U.S. and beyond."
BIOX Board of Directors Changes
With the establishment of the World Energy BIOX joint venture, the Board of Directors of BIOX has accepted the request of Robert Beamish to retire from the Board. To fill the vacancy created by Mr. Beamish's retirement, the Board has appointed Gene Gebolys, CEO of World Energy, effective as of the closing of the transaction. In addition, the Board of Directors has determined that it is an appropriate time to appoint Alan Rickard, the CEO of BIOX, to the Board of Directors.
"Mr. Beamish has provided a tremendous amount of experience and valuable advice as a member of the Board during the past nine years. On behalf of everyone at BIOX, I would like to thank him for his service," said Kevin Golding, Chair of BIOX. "With this first direct investment in the U.S. market, the Board concluded that Mr. Gebolys' unique perspective on the U.S. market would provide invaluable insight to the Board, while helping to unify the strategic direction of the joint venture with BIOX's plan for growth. Gene and Alan bring a great deal of industry experience from both a market and operations perspective."
Since 1996, Mr. Gebolys has championed biodiesel's development in the U.S. and throughout the world. He founded World Energy in 1998 which emerged to become an enduring and innovative force in the advanced biofuels industry over two decades. He was the founding Chairman of the National Biodiesel Political Action Committee and was a founding Commissioner of the National Biodiesel Accreditation Commission (BQ-9000). He was Chair of the National Biodiesel Board's Regulatory Committee for five years during the establishment of the industry's most critical public policy supports including the establishment of the Biodiesel Blenders Tax Credit and both Federal Renewable Fuels Standards (RFS1 and RFS2). He now co-chairs the industry's RFS Task Force that he has chaired since its inception in 2009.
Mr. Rickard has served as Chief Executive Officer of BIOX since October 2015. Mr. Rickard has more than 15 years of experience in the agri-food, energy and renewable fuels sectors. Prior to joining BIOX he served as VP Commercial Operations, Canada at Rothsay, a division of Darling International Canada Inc., and previously at Maple Leaf Foods Inc. in increasingly senior positions between 2001 and 2013.
About World Energy
World Energy (www.worldenergy.net) is an Advanced Biofuels supplier based in Boston with over 200 million gallons (600,000 metric tons) of production capacity in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Mississippi, and Texas and over 16 million gallons of biofuels storage servicing major markets in North America and beyond.
About BIOX Corporation
BIOX is a renewable energy company that owns and operates approximately 450 million litres of nameplate biodiesel production capacity at plants located in southern Ontario and Houston, Texas. BIOX has an innovative, proprietary and patented production process that is capable of producing the highest quality, renewable, clean burning and biodegradable biodiesel fuel utilizing a variety of feedstocks - from pure seed oils to animal fats to recovered vegetable oils with no change to the production process. BIOX's high quality biodiesel fuel meets North American (ASTM D-6751) quality standards.
