Strategic investors to support Roxas' ethanol business
abs-cbnNEWS.com | 10/09/2008 2:56 PM
Printer-friendly version | 
Send to friend | 
Share your views
Roxas Holdings Inc. is banking on the entry of strategic investors via a follow-on offering next year to support its planned foray into bioethanol production.
In an interview with reporters, Roxas Holdings treasurer Asuncion Aguilar said they still hope to be able to conduct the offering, although they are wary of bearish market conditions.
There are about four local and foreign investors interested in partnering with them for the ethanol business, she noted.
Aguilar said they have yet to determine the size of the offer or the stake the strategic investors will be allowed to buy. But definitely, she said they intend to keep a controlling stake of up to 67 percent in Roxas Holdings.
A subsidiary of the company, Roxol Bioenergy Corp., recently tapped India-based KBK Chem-Engineering Pvt. Ltd. to set up the company's P1-billion turnkey bioethanol plant in Negros Occidental.
The bioethanol plant would include facilities and equipment for fermentation and distillation in ethanol production, wastewater treatment, slops concentration, product storage as well as steam boiler and turbo-generator components. It will be built next to Central Azucarera de La Carlota Inc. in La Carlota City, a sugar mill owned by CADP Group Corp., a subsidiary of Roxas Holdings.
The plant, which will have a production capacity of 100,000 liters a day, is expected to be completed by the end of next year or early 2010.
"We are optimistic and quite excited about this business. Ethanol is an efficient, renewable and environment-friendly fuel. It will be a substantial addition to our stream of revenues," said Roxas Holdings chairman Pedro Roxas.
He added that they will primarily use final molasses as raw material for the ethanol production to be sourced from three sugar mills – the Roxas-owned CACI and Central Azucarera Don Pedro Inc. in Batangas and its affiliate Hawaiian-Philippine Co. in Negros Occidental.
