Equity firm acquires 40% of biochem producer Amyris Brasil

11 February 2010 17:07  [Source: ICIS news]

SAO PAULO (ICIS news)--Brazilian private equity firm Stratus acquired a 40% stake in Amyris Brasil, a unit of US-based Amyris Biotechnologies for about reais (R) 100m, ($54m) the company said on Thursday.

Stratus said it was eying the production of “green” feedstocks to be used in the domestic chemical market. Stratus said it made the acquisition via its CleanTech fund, which is focused on renewable energy companies.

Three other investors whose names were not revealed will participate in the venture, which is aimed at developing a new chemical production chain using sugarcane as feedstock.

Amyris plans to transform 2.4m tonnes of sugarcane into renewable feedstock for the domestic production of chemicals by 2014 and the investment would help the company produce at industrial scale, the company said earlier.

“Amyris Brasil has the potential to produce traditional chemicals using sustainable methods and with competitive costs, adding value to Brazil’s sugarcane sector,” Stratus CleanTech director Oren Pinsky added in a statement in Portuguese.

($1 = R 1.86)

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By: Hellen Berger
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