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Rocio Castro. Communication Department.
September 24, 2009
Seville, 24 September 2009. Abengoa has signed an agreement to acquire Ebro Puleva's 5\d \% stake in Biocarburantes de Castilla y León, S.A. for € 17 million, which includes net debt of € 31.6 million.
Biocarburantes de Castilla y León was jointly created by Abengoa and Ebro Puleva in 2000 with a 50 per cent stake each, to construct and operate a 200 million litre bioethanol plant in Babilafuente (Salamanca), which has been operational since 2006.
The deal, which will increase Abengoa's ethanol production capacity by 100 million litres, is a strategic move in terms of R&D+i as it gives the company control over the operations of the pilot plant, which produces ethanol from ligno-cellulose biomass. The pilot plant represents the initial phase prior to the industrial commercialisation of its second generation technologies. Abengoa Bioenergy is developing what will be the first commercial second-generation ethanol plant in Hugoton, Kansas, with the support of the US Department of Energy.
The Babilafuente plant, which in recent years has exported its production to the European Union, will begin to supply the Spanish market in 2010 once the mixture targets are definitively established by the Hydrocarbons Act.
Ministerial Order ITC 287772008 of 8 October, which defines the obligatory component of biofuels in transport fuels in Spain, sets a minimum target consumption of 5.83 per cent for biofuels, with a minimum of 3.9 per cent for bioethanol in petrol consumption, equivalent to 450 million litres of bioethanol, an increase of 50 per cent compared to the same minimum target for 2008.
The full integration of this plant with the rest of the plants owned by Abengoa Bioenergy in Spain (Cartagena and Curtis-Teixeiro, Galicia) and Europe (Lacq and Rotterdam) will allow the company to generate significant logistical and operational synergies.
Abengoa is a technology company that applies innovative solutions to sustainable development in the infrastructures, environment and energy sectors. It is a public listed company with a market capitalisation of € 1.826 million (24/09/2009) and it has a presence in more than 70 countries in which it operates with its five business groups of Solar, Bioenergy, Environmental Services, Information Technology, and Industrial Engineering and Construction.
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