(automatically updated/inserted from The Big Biofuels Blog)
Verenium could have difficulty continuing as a company, its auditors say in a report from Reuters yesterday and carried in the UK's Guardian Business Feed.The same report says Aventine may need to take Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
Key points from the Reuters report:
How much of these difficutlies is down to a lack of integration along the supply chain from field to pump and how much is down to the difficutly in bringing new technologies to the market cost effectively it is hard to say. But this story points up the difficulties that I'm sure many companies face across the sector.
More (from The Big Biofuels Blog)...
Verenium could have difficulty continuing as a company, its auditors say in a report from Reuters yesterday and carried in the UK's Guardian Business Feed.The same report says Aventine may need to take Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
Key points from the Reuters report:
Verenium's outside auditor, Ernst & Young, saidin a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filing that thecompany's working capital deficit of $23.8 million andaccumulated deficit of $622.6 million as of Dec. 31 "raisesubstantial doubt about its ability to continue as a goingconcern."
While Aventine said it didnot have the cash to make a $15 million interest payment dueApril 1 or the $24.4 million it owes builder Kiewit Energy Co. Kiewit built some ethanol-producing plants for Aventine.
Oil major BP has a stake in Verenium and it is not yet clear whether the firm would be prepared to step in and give addtional funding to Verenium. The press office is looking into it for me.While Aventine said it didnot have the cash to make a $15 million interest payment dueApril 1 or the $24.4 million it owes builder Kiewit Energy Co. Kiewit built some ethanol-producing plants for Aventine.
How much of these difficutlies is down to a lack of integration along the supply chain from field to pump and how much is down to the difficutly in bringing new technologies to the market cost effectively it is hard to say. But this story points up the difficulties that I'm sure many companies face across the sector.
More (from The Big Biofuels Blog)...