Imperium Renewables Closes $214M Financing; Planning 400M Gallon per Year Capacity

21 February 2007

Biodiesel producer Imperium Renewables, Inc. has closed its Series B round with $113 million of private equity and has mandated Société Générale Corporate & Investment Banking to act as sole book-runner and lead arranger of a $101 million Senior Secured Credit Facility.

Imperium exects to complete construction on its Port of Grays Harbor facility on the coast of Washington state in July, 2007. (Earlier post.) When complete, the facility will have the capacity to produce up to 100 million gallons of biodiesel per year. The company is using the proceeds from the Series B round to begin planning for up to three additional similarly sized facilities across the country and around the world.

The combined facilities will be designed to produce up to a total of 400 million gallons (9.5 million barrels) per year by the end of 2008.

The Series B equity round is believed to be the largest private equity investment in a biodiesel company in the United States, and one of the top five single investments in a renewable energy company ever.

I am super excited to have such a world class group of new investors, as well as a prominent alternative energy bank such as Société Générale to help us grow today and well into the future. We have the technology, the team and the funding to fulfill our goal to be the largest producer of biodiesel in the United States within the next 18 months.

—Martin Tobias, CEO and Chairman of Imperium Renewables

Existing investors Technology Partners and Nth Power were joined by a number of new investors, including funds affiliated with: Ardsley Partners, Attractor Investment Management Inc., BlackRock Investment Management (UK) Ltd., Capricorn Management, LLC, Ecofin, Robeco C.V., Silver Point Capital, Southport Energy Alternatives, Stark Biodiesel Investments, Ltd., and Treaty Oak Capital Management.

The renewable energy sector saw record amounts of investments in 2006. CleanTech Venture Network reported that $2.6 billion was invested in 2006, up 78% from 2005. In the fourth quarter of 2006, a total of $613 million was invested.

Imperium says that its process and technology innovations enable it to deliver improvements in product quality and throughput while significantly reducing capital and operating expenditures.