Argent Energy NZ plans still on track

Media Release

For immediate release July 23

Argent Energy NZ plans still on track

Biodiesel producer Argent Energy is still working on plans for a New Zealand plant despite the cancellation of its parent company’s proposed AIM listing in the United Kingdom.

Dickon Posnett, Managing Director of Argent Energy NZ Ltd, says finance for the construction of a plant capable of producing 75,000 tonnes (85 million litres) of biodiesel a year in New Zealand has always been independent of the UK listing. The primary aim of seeking a listing on the London Stock Exchange’s AIM market was to raise funds for other UK investments.

“The New Zealand feasibility study is continuing as planned and is progressing well,” he says.

Argent Energy plc announced last week it had decided not to proceed with its intention to seek a listing on the AIM market, via a placing of new and existing ordinary shares with institutional investors, due to stock market conditions in the sector.

The company says in a statement that it remains strategically well positioned to leverage market opportunities.

“With no debt and positive cash flow being generated from operations, the outlook remains good. Argent Energy will be examining other options available to fund future growth and is able to do this from a position of strength,” the statement says.

Mr Posnett says the decision to look at other financing options in the UK has no impact on continuing work in New Zealand and local funding options continue to be evaluated. The investment community continues to remain interested in the biodiesel sector globally, he says, especially where sustainable feedstocks are utilised in biodiesel plants to produce quality biodiesel to standards such as the European biodiesel standard EN 14214.

Argent Energy’s Austrian designed technology enables its plants to utilise tallow (waste animal fats) and used cooking oils (UCO), both of which are considered a sustainable feedstock source.

Argent Energy UK’s Motherwell plant in Scotland is operating to capacity and the company recently received planning permission to build a biodiesel plant on a nine acre brownfield site at Ellesmere Port in Cheshire, England. The proposed plant will ultimately process around 150,000 tonnes of used cooking oil and tallow to produce 170 million litres of biodiesel a year, displacing up to 680,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide.

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